"A household residing in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and qualified tutor to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily overlook the term "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the crucial part of this unique position posting, as it aims to find a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have already been received since the unnamed family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received notice throughout the media, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that despite early skepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," stated the CEO.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to instil.
He said the tutor must be someone 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 right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", would the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", replied he. "The parents know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the result they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I believe the situation that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
