"A household residing in north London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced tutor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily overlook the wording "first-steps" as just figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial element of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have since been received since the anonymous family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the press, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding first skepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they recognized the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they stated 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 age "cultural bias had already set in".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they did not want this pattern to recur with their infant.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
He explained the tutor must be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who share these concerns.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can somehow transplant the qualities of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will will not necessarily create the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to live many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
