"A household residing in north London seeks an remarkable and qualified educator to support their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally skip the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
However, it might be the most important part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have already been sent in since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the news, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that in spite of initial skepticism, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the atypical aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
He said the tutor must be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", said Adam. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have these concerns.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been brought up understanding and practicing dual heritages. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears naive and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a typically British tutor from infancy will not instantly achieve the goal they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
