"Parents based in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to assist their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the most important element of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of applications have now been received since the anonymous family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted interest in the press, with several wondering why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding first scepticism, he found the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed him they hoped to prevent this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," stated the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor must be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied he. "The parents know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who have those doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been educated understanding and living dual heritages. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will does not automatically produce the outcome they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the world views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
