"Parents residing in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified tutor to assist their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally miss the term "first-steps" as mere an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have now been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the advert has gained notice across the media, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding first skepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they want to cultivate.
Adam said the tutor needed to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", answered he. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who have these reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the period of seven, and had been raised knowing and living two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly British tutor from infancy will does not automatically achieve the result they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live several of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I believe the reality that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
