"Parents residing in the northern part of London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most important element of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the media, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite initial scepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional character of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", could the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early 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 concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living both cultures. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman to a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from infancy will not necessarily create the goal they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
