"Parents located in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified instructor to assist their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might readily miss the phrase "first-steps" as just an expression.
But, it may be the most important element of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Numerous of applications have now been sent in since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received notice across the press, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that in spite of first skepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to him they did not want this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they want to impart.
Adam said the tutor must be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Furthermore though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
However, despite all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the international family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", answered Adam. "They know this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who share similar concerns.
An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly British tutor from infancy will not automatically produce the result they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and sold.
"I believe the situation that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
