"A household based in North London is looking for an remarkable and qualified tutor to assist their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the term "first-steps" as mere an expression.
Yet, it might be the most important aspect of this unique job advert, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received interest in the news, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding first skepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they understood the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to him they wished to avoid history to recur with their infant.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to impart.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of courses 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 become a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", said he. "They understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who have similar doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and living two backgrounds. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from early childhood will does not automatically create the outcome they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
