"A family based in North London seeks an exceptional and experienced educator to assist their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."
Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally skip the term "first-steps" as simple an expression.
But, it could be the crucial part of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of submissions have since been received since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted attention throughout the news, with many wondering why?
Progressive Approach
The CEO, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of first skepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".
When he met the family, he noted they understood the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", he replied. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The strategy: To hire a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.
Subtle Influence
"Much of the development at the beginning here is somewhat absorbed naturally," said the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to cultivate.
He said the tutor needed to be someone who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and provide access.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the private teaching field who share similar reservations.
Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
He noted that he had emigrated from China to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying both cultures. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that one individual can act as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the result they want.
"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, self-identity should not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, UK identity is something the expert believes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the situation that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
