"Parents located in North London wants to find an remarkable and experienced instructor to support their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
But, it might be the most significant element of this unique job advert, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of applications have since been submitted since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained notice across the press, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding first scepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to cultivate.
He explained the tutor must be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", said Adam. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have those concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated understanding and embodying dual heritages. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the attributes of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a typically UK tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily create the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
