"A family located in north London seeks an exceptional and skilled tutor to support their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily skip the wording "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the most significant element of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a infant.
Many of responses have now been submitted since the unidentified family posted their request for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has gained interest in the media, with many asking why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, explained that despite early skepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the unusual character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".
But what does the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The manner you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to him they did not want the same situation to happen again with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained Adam.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to impart.
He said the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed the expert the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will bring about success and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
Yet, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?
"Yes", said the CEO. "The parents understand this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who express similar reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies private tutors, commented that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the period of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying both cultures. He continued to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can function as a living vessel of Britishness, a person who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"Based on my background, having a typically English tutor from babyhood will not automatically achieve the goal they desire.
"I never had such a figure, and however I have been lucky enough to experience several of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He stated: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert thinks can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the international society holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
