"A household residing in north London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to assist their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as mere an expression.
Yet, it could be the crucial element of this unique job advert, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of submissions have since been received since the unnamed family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted attention in the press, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite early doubt, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child absorb what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert explained that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will not necessarily create the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
