"Parents located in the northern part of London is looking for an extraordinary and qualified instructor to support their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally overlook the wording "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
However, it could be the most significant element of this unusual employment listing, as it aims to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of responses have already been received since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the advert has received attention throughout the press, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that despite early scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then become established".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor must be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child pick up alleged cultural bias from the international family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", replied the CEO. "The family know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the tutoring industry who have those reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can function as a representation of English culture, a person who can in some way impart the attributes of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a typically UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily achieve the goal they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the reality that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
