"A household based in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced tutor to assist their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most significant aspect of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been received since the unnamed family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained interest in the news, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that despite initial doubt, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed him they did not want history to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have similar doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a representation of UK identity, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a typically English tutor from early childhood will will not automatically achieve the result they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
