"A family residing in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally skip the phrase "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it may be the most significant aspect of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to find a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted attention across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the atypical character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," stated the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to impart.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons 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 minds, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", replied he. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who express similar reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and living two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can possibly impart the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, appears naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly English tutor from infancy will not automatically produce the result they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
