"A household based in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to guide their smallest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily skip the term "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
However, it might be the most important element of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to find a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of applications have already been sent in since the unidentified family published their request 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 media, with several wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he found the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
He said the tutor must be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds 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 carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who express similar concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living both cultures. He progressed to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can act as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily create the result they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
