"A family based in north London wants to find an exceptional and experienced instructor to assist their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might easily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
However, it could be the most important aspect of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Many of responses have already been sent in since the anonymous family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained attention in the media, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding first doubt, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the atypical character of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already become established".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," said the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or passion in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", could the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will will not instantly produce the result they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
