"A family residing in the northern part of London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to guide their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it might be the most significant aspect of this distinctive employment listing, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of applications have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received notice throughout the press, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first scepticism, he considered the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unconventional nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then become established".
But what did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," said Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor needed to be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
But, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by anyway?
"Absolutely", replied he. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who express those doubts.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of childhood, and had been raised knowing and living two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that a single person can function as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can somehow impart the characteristics of a British gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily create the result they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
