"Parents located in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might naturally skip the phrase "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it might be the crucial part of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been received since the unidentified family posted their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted attention across the media, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that in spite of initial scepticism, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family told the consultant they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the learning at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated Adam.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the UK customs they want to instil.
He explained the tutor had to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to success and create opportunities.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
However, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", could the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "The family know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express similar concerns.
Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
He noted that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and living two backgrounds. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a representation of UK identity, someone who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"From my perspective, having a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the outcome they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
