"A household located in North London is looking for an extraordinary and qualified tutor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally miss the wording "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
However, it might be the crucial element of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have already been received since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received interest across the press, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding early doubt, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they wish to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
But, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", said he. "The parents know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share similar concerns.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had moved from China to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing both cultures. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can function as a representation of English culture, a person who can possibly transfer the qualities of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will not instantly produce the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the situation that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
