"A household located in north London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as simple an expression.
However, it could be the most important part of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their request for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has attracted interest across the news, with many questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that despite first doubt, he found the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they did not want history to happen again with their infant.
The strategy: To bring in a English tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," said the expert.
It's via this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to instil.
Adam said the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or enthusiasm in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
Furthermore though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he notes.
However, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", said Adam. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the education sector who have similar concerns.
Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and practicing both cultures. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that a single person can function as a embodiment of English culture, a person who can in some way transfer the attributes of a British gentleman onto a infant child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will will not automatically create the outcome they hope for.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, personal identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.
"I think the reality that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
