"A family located in North London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to support their youngest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally miss the term "first-steps" as mere an expression.
But, it might be the most important aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have already been submitted since the unidentified family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has received interest throughout the media, with several questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding first skepticism, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the outset here is rather osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they want to instil.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", could the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who have these reservations.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and embodying both cultures. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a infant child, appears optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not automatically create the goal they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
