"A household located in North London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily miss the phrase "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the crucial part of this unique employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Many of submissions have now been submitted since the anonymous family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted attention throughout the press, with numerous wondering why?
Innovative Idea
Adam Caller, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, said that notwithstanding early skepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their requirement, and how young their son is.
Nevertheless, 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 stage "cultural influence had already set in".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained the expert.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the British traits they aim to impart.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the selected educator should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and musical activities so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.
However, despite all this guidance in "English culture", would the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the tutoring industry who express these concerns.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised knowing and living both cultures. He continued to be educated 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 transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly English tutor from infancy will does not automatically create the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert hopes can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the reality that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
