"A family based in north London seeks an extraordinary and qualified educator to assist their smallest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant element of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have since been submitted since the unnamed family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained notice in the press, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, said that despite first doubt, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told him they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the development at the outset here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they wish to instil.
Adam explained the tutor must be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told the expert the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in success and open doors.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he adds.
But, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who share similar doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and practicing both cultures. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can act as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a typically British tutor from early childhood will not necessarily achieve the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the reality that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
