"A family based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced instructor to support their youngest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily overlook the wording "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it could be the most significant part of this unique position posting, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a infant.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the unidentified family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted notice throughout the news, with numerous wondering why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, said that despite first doubt, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then become established".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor had to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will lead to success and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "English culture", could the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "They know this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who express similar reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and living both cultures. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will does not automatically produce the outcome they desire.
"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, English culture is something the expert thinks can be taught – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the global community holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
