"A family based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to assist their youngest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily miss the phrase "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the most significant part of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have since been received since the unidentified family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has received attention across the press, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that despite early doubt, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to instil.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.
However, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", answered the CEO. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have these doubts.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, stated that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily produce the goal they desire.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something Adam thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
