"A household located in north London is looking for an remarkable and qualified educator to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily overlook the wording "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most significant aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been received since the unnamed family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted notice across the press, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that in spite of first skepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already become established".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to instil.
Adam said the tutor had to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", answered Adam. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who have these concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He noted that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been brought up understanding and embodying dual heritages. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a representation of English culture, a person who can somehow transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will will not instantly achieve the goal they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the fact that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
