"A family located in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and qualified tutor to support their most junior child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might naturally skip the term "first-steps" as mere an expression.
However, it may be the most important aspect of this unique job advert, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been submitted since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received notice across the media, with many asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that despite first scepticism, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the learning at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they wish to cultivate.
He said the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", said Adam. "They realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who express similar concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had moved from China to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and practicing two backgrounds. He progressed to learn at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can act as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can somehow impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"In my experience, having a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will does not automatically achieve the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
