"Parents based in north London wants to find an remarkable and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally miss the phrase "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial part of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been received since the anonymous family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained interest across the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that despite first skepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told Adam they did not want the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," explained the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
But, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have these doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the time of seven, and had been brought up knowing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can function as a representation of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from infancy will not necessarily create the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
