"A household based in north London seeks an exceptional and qualified instructor to guide their most junior child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the most important part of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the unidentified family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention in the news, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that in spite of first doubt, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to impart.
The consultant noted the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "The family understand this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who share those reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying both cultures. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the qualities of a British gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
