"Parents residing in the northern part of London seeks an remarkable and qualified educator to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the wording "first-steps" as mere an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of responses have since been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest throughout the news, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite early doubt, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their request, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to impart.
He explained the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or interest in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "The family understand this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express these reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated knowing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can possibly impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will not automatically create the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
