"Parents based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and experienced instructor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received attention in the press, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding initial doubt, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," stated Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to instil.
Adam explained the tutor had to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied he. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share similar reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and living both cultures. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can in some way transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will does not instantly produce the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
