"A family residing in North London seeks an exceptional and qualified tutor to guide their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the wording "first-steps" as mere an expression.
Yet, it could be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have since been received since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the media, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite early doubt, he found the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed him they did not want history to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the British traits they wish to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", said Adam. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who share similar reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter noted that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been educated understanding and living both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, someone who can somehow transplant the qualities of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not automatically achieve the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
