"A family based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled educator to guide their most junior child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the phrase "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unique position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been received since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained interest in the media, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their infant.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the expert.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they wish to instil.
Adam noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", answered he. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who have similar concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and practicing both cultures. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can in some way impart the attributes of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will will not instantly create the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
