"A family based in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and skilled instructor to guide their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
But, it could be the most important part of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have since been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has received notice across the media, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they want to impart.
The consultant said the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", said he. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share similar reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the time of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
