"A household based in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and experienced instructor to guide their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might easily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the most important element of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have now been received since the unnamed family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the media, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the unusual aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already taken hold".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "How you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told him they did not want history to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they aim to impart.
Adam noted the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Money No Object
The family told him the successful candidate 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 diverse set of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "They understand this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
Several in the tutoring industry who share these concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been educated understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that an individual can serve as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, having a typically English tutor from infancy will not instantly produce the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
