"Parents located in the northern part of London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled instructor to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally overlook the term "first-steps" as just an expression.
However, it might be the most significant element of this unique employment listing, as it aims to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been sent in since the unidentified family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has gained attention in the news, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding first skepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the atypical character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to him they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to instil.
Adam said the tutor must be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who share similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He noted that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been raised understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can in some way impart the attributes of a English gentleman to a infant child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically achieve the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
