"Parents residing in North London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled educator to support their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most important aspect of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have since been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received notice in the news, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite first skepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they aim to impart.
Adam explained the tutor must be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "The parents know this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and living two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can act as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly impart the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will not automatically produce the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
