"A household based in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and experienced educator to support their smallest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it might be the crucial element of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have since been sent in since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained notice across the news, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, said that despite early skepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told him they did not want history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the outset here is rather osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He said the tutor must be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "They understand this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who have these doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a representation of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman upon a infant child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from infancy will will not automatically create the goal they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
