"A family based in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified instructor to support their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily miss the phrase "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have already been submitted since the unidentified family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received attention throughout the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding early scepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they wish to instil.
He noted the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "The parents know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share those reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and embodying both cultures. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically create the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
