"A family located in North London wants to find an remarkable and experienced educator to assist their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might naturally overlook the phrase "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
Yet, it may be the most significant aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Many of submissions have since been submitted since the unnamed family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the news, with numerous questioning why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, explained that despite initial scepticism, he viewed the idea "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unusual nature 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 waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then taken hold".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam answered. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they did not want the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the start here is kind of osmotic," said Adam.
It's through this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.
He noted the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of passions.
Furthermore though, he explained the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Absolutely", answered he. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the education sector who have similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and living two backgrounds. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can function as a living vessel of Britishness, someone who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he commented.
"In my experience, employing a typically British tutor from babyhood will does not automatically create the result they want.
"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the situation that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
