"A household based in north London is looking for an remarkable and qualified tutor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily overlook the term "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it could be the most significant aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted notice throughout the media, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of initial skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the unusual character of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already become established".
But what does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told Adam they wished to avoid history to recur with their new baby.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
The consultant explained the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "The family understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who have these doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated experiencing and living dual heritages. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a representation of English culture, an individual who can possibly impart the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will will not automatically create the result they want.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
