"A family based in north London seeks an exceptional and qualified instructor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
However, it might be the most important aspect of this unique position posting, as it attempts to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the press, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding first doubt, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the start here is kind of osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to instil.
He noted the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories 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 doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", replied he. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who express those concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had moved from China to the UK at the time of seven, and had been raised experiencing and practicing both cultures. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the qualities of a English gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will will not necessarily produce the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
