"Parents located in the northern part of London seeks an remarkable and qualified instructor to support their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might naturally miss the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the post has attracted attention across the press, with several asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, said that despite early doubt, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already taken hold".
What exactly does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they did not want history to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he said.
Overly Optimistic
A number of in the education sector who have these concerns.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can in some way transfer the attributes of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily achieve the goal they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to experience many of the experiences they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
