"Parents located in North London is looking for an exceptional and qualified instructor to support their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it may be the crucial element of this unique job advert, as it seeks to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has received notice across the media, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, explained that in spite of initial doubt, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already become established".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
He noted the tutor had to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", would the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Yes", replied he. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share these reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying dual heritages. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, engaging a typically English tutor from early childhood will will not automatically produce the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
