"A family based in North London seeks an extraordinary and experienced tutor to support their youngest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily miss the term "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it may be the crucial part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have since been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the press, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding initial doubt, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their infant.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they wish to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor must be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs 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 told Adam the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied the CEO. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the qualities of a English gentleman upon a infant child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will does not instantly create the result they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something Adam believes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the reality that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
