"A household located in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and experienced educator to guide their smallest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally skip the term "first-steps" as simple an expression.
But, it may be the most significant aspect of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have now been received since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted attention in the news, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding early doubt, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already set in".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they did not want the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they aim to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", said he. "The parents know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express these doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can in some way transplant the attributes of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly British tutor from infancy will does not instantly create the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
