"Parents residing in North London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced tutor to assist their youngest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as just figurative language.
However, it may be the crucial aspect of this unique job advert, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Numerous of responses have since been sent in since the unidentified family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the post has gained notice throughout the media, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, head and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, said that despite early scepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they did not want this pattern to recur with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Subtle Influence
"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to impart.
The consultant said the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he added.
Money No Object
The family explained to Adam the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.
But, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the international family he is raised by regardless?
"Yes", said he. "They know this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as soon as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who share these doubts.
An education leader, head and founder of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, commented that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or in fact, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and living both cultures. He continued to learn at Cambridge University.
"The idea that a single person can function as a representation of Britishness, a person who can possibly transfer the attributes of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially UK tutor from babyhood will will not necessarily produce the result they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something Adam hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I believe the fact that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
