"A household located in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to support their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily miss the phrase "first-steps" as just an expression.
However, it might be the most important element of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of applications have already been sent in since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the press, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that despite initial doubt, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already become established".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid history to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," said the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to impart.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – 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 carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", answered he. "The family realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the education sector who express those reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been educated experiencing and living both cultures. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can function as a representation of UK identity, someone who can possibly impart the attributes of a English gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam believes can be educated – and sold.
"I think the reality that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
