"A household located in north London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to support their youngest child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally miss the phrase "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received interest throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he considered the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the unusual aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," explained Adam.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
Adam noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", might the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The family understand this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have these doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and embodying both cultures. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way transfer the attributes of a British gentleman onto a infant child, appears naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a typically UK tutor from early childhood will does not automatically achieve the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the situation that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
