"Parents residing in North London is looking for an remarkable and qualified tutor to guide their youngest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most important aspect of this unique employment listing, as it aims to find a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have now been received since the unnamed family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has gained attention in the press, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite initial scepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unusual character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then become established".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they aim to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
But, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", said he. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who have those concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can function as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transfer the qualities of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not instantly produce the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been fortunate enough to live numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the CEO believes 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
