"A household based in north London is looking for an remarkable and skilled educator to assist their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily skip the phrase "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has gained notice across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that in spite of initial skepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they did not want the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.
Adam said the tutor must be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family told Adam the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", said Adam. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who express those reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been brought up understanding and living both cultures. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can possibly impart the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not instantly achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something Adam hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
