"A household residing in the northern part of London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced educator to support their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might readily overlook the term "first-steps" as mere figurative language.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it aims to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been submitted since the unnamed family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received attention throughout the press, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
Adam Caller, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding early doubt, he found the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unusual nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the elder child had picked up "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family explained to Adam they did not want history to repeat itself with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"A great deal of the development at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they aim to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – 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 doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child adopt alleged cultural influence from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", answered Adam. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
Peter explained that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been raised understanding and embodying dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that an individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can in some way impart the qualities of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily achieve the outcome they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience several of the situations they hope for their son."
He stated: "The fact is, self-identity can not be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I think the situation that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
