"Parents located in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to support their most junior child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most important aspect of this unique job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been submitted since the unidentified family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has gained attention across the media, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that despite early doubt, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained 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 conditioning had already set in".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the education at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they wish to instil.
He noted the tutor must be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", said he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who share similar concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the time of seven, and had been raised experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transfer the attributes of a British gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not instantly achieve the goal they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
