"A family based in North London seeks an exceptional and qualified tutor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
Yet, it might be the most significant aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a infant.
Numerous of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted notice throughout the media, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding early scepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the atypical nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," stated the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to instil.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", would the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who share similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had moved from China to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can act as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can somehow transfer the qualities of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from infancy will not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
