"A family based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and experienced educator to guide their most junior child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
But, it could be the crucial element of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted attention across the media, with numerous questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that despite first scepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then become established".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their infant.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to impart.
He said the tutor must be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Absolutely", replied Adam. "They realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share those reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and living both cultures. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can function as a representation of Britishness, someone who can possibly transfer the attributes of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, having a typically British tutor from infancy will does not automatically create the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
