"A household based in north London wants to find an remarkable and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as mere an expression.
However, it might be the most important part of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of applications have since been received since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained notice across the press, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to instil.
The consultant explained 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 educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", would the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who express those reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been educated understanding and embodying both cultures. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can possibly transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a typically UK tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something Adam thinks can be taught – and sold.
"In my view the situation that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
