"A household located in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to support their most junior child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
Yet, it might be the most important part of this unique job advert, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the media, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite initial skepticism, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the unconventional nature of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to impart.
He said the tutor had to be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", replied he. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the education sector who share these concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that an individual can act as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can in some way transfer the attributes of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"In my experience, having a typically English tutor from early childhood will not instantly achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
