"A family residing in North London is looking for an remarkable and experienced instructor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the term "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
But, it could be the most significant element of this unique position posting, as it attempts to find a teacher for a infant.
Many of submissions have already been received since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention in the press, with many wondering why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding early skepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they did not want history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they aim to instil.
He said the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", would the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The parents understand this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who share these reservations.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He continued to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that a single person can serve as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, English culture is something the CEO believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the world holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
