"A household located in the northern part of London seeks an remarkable and qualified educator to assist their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this advertisement, you might naturally miss the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the crucial aspect of this distinctive job advert, as it aims to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of submissions have since been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted interest across the news, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that despite first skepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their request, and how young their son is.
However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", the expert answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "really subtle, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their new baby.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the beginning here is rather osmotic," said Adam.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they want to impart.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed him the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Absolutely", said he. "The family realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the education sector who have these reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
He explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been educated knowing and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can function as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will not automatically create the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and marketed.
"I think the fact that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
