"A family located in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled tutor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily overlook the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
But, it could be the most significant element of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained attention across the press, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the learning at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
He said the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", answered he. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the private teaching field who express those reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been brought up understanding and living dual heritages. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, having a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will not necessarily achieve the goal they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
