"Parents based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced instructor to guide their smallest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily miss the phrase "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most significant aspect of this unique position posting, as it aims to find a tutor for a infant.
Many of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained attention in the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that in spite of early doubt, he found the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the atypical aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed him they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who express similar concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and living dual heritages. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not instantly produce the outcome they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
