"Parents residing in North London seeks an remarkable and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily skip the term "first-steps" as just an expression.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unique employment listing, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have since been sent in since the unidentified family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has received notice in the press, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that despite first scepticism, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, 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 age "cultural influence had by then set in".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told him they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", said he. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share these doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can act as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way impart the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will not instantly produce the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
