"A family based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled tutor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might readily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the most important element of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been sent in since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted notice across the media, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, said that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unusual character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family informed him they did not want this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," said the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to instil.
Adam said the tutor must be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", said Adam. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who share these reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated understanding and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can possibly transplant the qualities of a English gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will will not instantly create the result they want.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live many of the situations they hope for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be taught – and sold.
"I think the fact that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
