"A household located in north London seeks an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally overlook the term "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unusual job advert, as it aims to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have already been sent in since the unnamed family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the advert has gained attention throughout the media, with many questioning why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of initial doubt, he viewed the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their request, and how young their son is.
But, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family told Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the education at the outset here is rather osmotic," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they want to instil.
The consultant explained the tutor must be an individual 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 suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or interest in riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", would the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?
"Absolutely", replied he. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have those doubts.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The notion that an individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can somehow transfer the qualities of a English gentleman onto a infant child, appears idealistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily achieve the result they hope for.
"I did not have such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something the expert believes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the world views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
