"A family residing in the northern part of London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled educator to support their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally skip the phrase "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it could be the crucial element of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, said that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual character of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already become established".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they wished to avoid history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they aim to instil.
He said the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "They know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He wrote that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily create the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
