"A household residing in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced instructor to support their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally skip the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the crucial element of this unusual job advert, as it aims to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have now been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the news, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding early scepticism, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their request, 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 held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share these concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had relocated from China to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and living both cultures. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to live numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
