"Parents located in the northern part of London wants to find an remarkable and skilled educator to assist their smallest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally skip the term "first-steps" as just an expression.
However, it might be the crucial element of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have now been sent in since the unnamed family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest throughout the news, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that despite first scepticism, he considered the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," explained Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
He said the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", might the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who express these doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
