"A family located in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and qualified tutor to assist their youngest child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the crucial part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have since been received since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted attention throughout the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of first skepticism, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they wish to instil.
Adam said the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child absorb alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied he. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
A number of in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a British gentleman onto a infant child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a typically UK tutor from infancy will not necessarily achieve the result they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
