"Parents based in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced tutor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as just figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial element of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have already been received since the unnamed family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the media, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding early scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
But what did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to impart.
He said the tutor must be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", said he. "The family realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express similar concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been raised understanding and embodying dual heritages. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, appears naive and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily produce the goal they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
