"Parents residing in north London seeks an exceptional and qualified instructor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the crucial aspect of this unique job advert, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted attention throughout the news, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding initial doubt, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
He said the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family told him the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share those concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had moved from China to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can in some way transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a typically UK tutor from infancy will will not instantly produce the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be dictated 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 instructed – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
