"A family located in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the term "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most significant aspect of this unusual job advert, as it aims to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been submitted since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the media, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that in spite of initial doubt, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor must be someone who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", replied he. "The family understand this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share these concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can somehow impart the characteristics of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
