"A family located in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified tutor to guide their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most significant aspect of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to find a teacher for a infant.
Many of submissions have already been received since the unnamed family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the media, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that despite initial doubt, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he said they understood the unconventional character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already set in".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told him they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," explained the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor must be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire 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, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and provide access.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
But, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who express those concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can possibly impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something the expert thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
