"A family based in north London seeks an remarkable and skilled tutor to guide their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as mere an expression.
However, it might be the most important part of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of applications have already been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the post has received interest in the press, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first doubt, he considered the plan "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical aspect of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert responded. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the learning at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor must be someone who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The instructor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he adds.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?
"Absolutely", said the CEO. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have similar reservations.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
He wrote that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been educated knowing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that one individual can function as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can somehow impart the qualities of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he commented.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not automatically produce the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, personal identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and marketed.
"I believe the fact that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
