"Parents located in North London wants to find an remarkable and qualified instructor to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally skip the term "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial element of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have since been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention in the news, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding initial doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told him they did not want history to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to instil.
He said the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – 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 doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
But, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who have similar reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
Peter explained that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can function as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way impart the qualities of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically create the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
