"A family based in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified educator to guide their smallest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might naturally overlook the phrase "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most important aspect of this unique position posting, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of responses have already been received since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their search, said that in spite of initial doubt, he considered the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid history to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they want to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor must 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 instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", answered the CEO. "They understand this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who express similar reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will not automatically achieve the goal they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam believes can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
