"A household located in North London wants to find an remarkable and skilled tutor to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a infant.
Many of applications have now been sent in since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received attention throughout the media, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed him they did not want history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to instil.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family understand this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who have those doubts.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
Peter explained that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, a person who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a typically English tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the result they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
