"Parents residing in north London wants to find an remarkable and experienced instructor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it might be the most important part of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to find a mentor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have since been received since the anonymous family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has received notice in the media, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, explained that despite early scepticism, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," stated Adam.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will pick up the British traits they want to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor must be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with in any case?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "They understand this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who have these concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
He explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living both cultures. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can possibly transplant the attributes of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a typically UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily create the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to live many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the fact that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
