"Parents based in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and experienced tutor to support their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally skip the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
But, it may be the crucial aspect of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have now been received since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received notice throughout the news, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then become established".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", said he. "They understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert noted that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the period of seven, and had been raised experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, appears naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a typically UK tutor from infancy will will not automatically produce the outcome they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
