"A family located in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and experienced educator to support their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally miss the term "first-steps" as just an expression.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to find a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have already been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received attention in the media, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that despite early scepticism, he considered the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they wished to avoid history to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who share similar doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can somehow impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily achieve the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
