"A household located in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to assist their most junior child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the crucial element of this unique position posting, as it aims to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been submitted since the unnamed family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the post has gained interest in the press, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that in spite of early skepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated 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 stage "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," said the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they want to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor must be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or passion in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The parents know this may not work, but they've simply adopted 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 stated.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who share those concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from infancy will not instantly produce the outcome they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
