"Parents residing in north London wants to find an remarkable and experienced educator to support their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily skip the wording "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it may be the most significant aspect of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have now been received since the unnamed family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention in the media, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding early scepticism, he considered the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the unusual nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family explained to the consultant they hoped to prevent history to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the start here is somewhat osmotic," said the expert.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they want to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.
Money No Object
The family informed the expert the selected educator should preferably also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", could the child absorb so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Certainly", answered he. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the education sector who have similar reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can possibly transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly English tutor from babyhood will not necessarily create the goal they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
