"A family based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and qualified instructor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it could be the most important element of this unique position posting, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received interest in the news, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
But, they explained 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 stage "cultural influence had by then become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by in any case?
"Yes", said he. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who have similar doubts.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can possibly impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly English tutor from infancy will will not instantly create the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to experience several of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
