"A household located in North London is looking for an exceptional and qualified educator to guide their most junior child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might naturally miss the term "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial part of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has received interest in the media, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite first scepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to impart.
Adam explained the tutor had to be an individual who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses 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 minds, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", could the child absorb alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who share similar reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the time of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a representation of Britishness, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will not instantly achieve the outcome they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
