"Parents based in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled instructor to guide their youngest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it might be the most important element of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have now been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained interest throughout the media, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of early scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they want to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor needed to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
But, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "They know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides private tutors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been brought up understanding and practicing dual heritages. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can act as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily produce the result they want.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
