"A household based in north London wants to find an exceptional and experienced tutor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have since been received since the anonymous family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained interest across the media, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite first scepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then set in".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the start here is kind of osmotic," said the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they wish to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
But, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who share these concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had moved from China to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and living both cultures. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can function as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can possibly impart the attributes of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily produce the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the reality that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating