"Parents based in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to support their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this post, you might readily miss the phrase "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most significant element of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of submissions have now been received since the unidentified family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received attention in the press, with many wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding early skepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family told him they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the beginning here is rather osmotic," stated the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they aim to instil.
He said the tutor must be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
But, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the tutoring industry who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living two backgrounds. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can serve as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can possibly transfer the attributes of a British gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not instantly achieve the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Naturally, UK identity is something Adam believes can be taught – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
