"Parents located in North London seeks an extraordinary and skilled instructor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily overlook the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most significant part of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained attention in the news, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding first scepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical aspect of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to impart.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted 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 about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he adds.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the private teaching field who share these reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that one individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can in some way impart the qualities of a English gentleman upon a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily create the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
