"A household located in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
But, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique job advert, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Numerous of responses have since been submitted 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 advert has attracted notice throughout the news, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that despite initial doubt, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already become established".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the learning at the start here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they wish to instil.
He explained the tutor must be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will result in achievement and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", answered Adam. "They know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who share these doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the age of seven, and had been brought up understanding and practicing both cultures. He went on to study at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a representation of Britishness, a person who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, employing a typically British tutor from infancy will not necessarily achieve the outcome they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to live several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the global community holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
