"A family residing in north London is looking for an exceptional and experienced instructor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might readily overlook the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it could be the most significant element of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of responses have since been submitted since the unidentified family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received attention throughout the news, with numerous questioning why?
Progressive Approach
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he considered the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then set in".
What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".
He said the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed him they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the learning at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated the expert.
It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the UK customs they want to instil.
Adam noted the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Cost Not Relevant
The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably 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 interests.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he notes.
Yet, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the globally influenced family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", said the CEO. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
Several in the education sector who share similar reservations.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
The expert explained that he had moved from China to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and living two backgrounds. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that one individual can act as a embodiment of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transfer the attributes of a UK sophisticate upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he commented.
"Based on my background, having a typically English tutor from babyhood will not instantly achieve the goal they desire.
"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."
He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
