"A family based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and qualified instructor to support their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily skip the wording "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it could be the crucial element of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to find a mentor for a infant.
Many of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted attention throughout the media, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, said that despite initial doubt, he found the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid history to happen again with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they want to impart.
Adam said the tutor must be an individual who studied at "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 appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", answered Adam. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who express those reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
Peter wrote that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman to a infant child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will not instantly produce the result they want.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
