"Parents based in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to support their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally overlook the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it may be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it attempts to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been submitted since the unidentified family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has received notice in the media, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that in spite of initial doubt, he found the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they did not want history to happen again with their infant.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they wish to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who share those reservations.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and living both cultures. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can act as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, having a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will does not automatically create the goal they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
