"A family based in North London is looking for an remarkable and qualified tutor to guide their smallest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily overlook the wording "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the most significant aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been submitted since the anonymous family published their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted notice in the news, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that in spite of first scepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the unusual nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
He said the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", answered he. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have those concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and living dual heritages. He continued to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a typically English tutor from babyhood will will not instantly produce the result they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
