"Parents based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and qualified instructor to support their most junior child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it might be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of responses have already been sent in since the unidentified family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained attention throughout the press, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that in spite of first scepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had by then become established".
What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family told him they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the education at the outset here is somewhat osmotic," said the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.
The consultant said the tutor needed to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by in any case?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "The family know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Impractical
There are some in the private teaching field who share similar doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
Peter noted that he had moved from China to the Britain at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and living dual heritages. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, someone who can in some way impart the qualities of a British gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"Based on my background, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will does not instantly achieve the goal they hope for.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
