"A family located in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified educator to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most significant aspect of this unique position posting, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the press, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that despite first scepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unusual aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they did not want history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the education at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to impart.
He said the tutor must be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up 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 create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", answered he. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the education sector who share similar doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He explained that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will not automatically produce the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
