"Parents located in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to support their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily overlook the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it might be the most important aspect of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received notice throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding early scepticism, he found the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then become established".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed him they hoped to prevent history to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", said Adam. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who share similar doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, a person who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will will not instantly create the result they want.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to live numerous of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something Adam thinks 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
