"Parents based in north London seeks an remarkable and skilled tutor to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally skip the wording "first-steps" as mere an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial element of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have already been received since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained notice across the news, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of early doubt, he considered the idea "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".
But what does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they did not want this pattern to happen again with their younger child.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to cultivate.
He said the tutor needed to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "They understand this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who share those doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
He wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated knowing and living both cultures. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will will not automatically create the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the fact that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
