"Parents located in North London seeks an extraordinary and skilled instructor to support their most junior child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a infant.
Many of submissions have already been received since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite first skepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told Adam they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the development at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
He noted the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "The family know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who share those reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had relocated from China to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated experiencing and embodying both cultures. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The concept that an individual can act as a representation of UK identity, a person who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will not automatically achieve the result they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
