"A family located in North London seeks an extraordinary and experienced instructor to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily overlook the wording "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most significant part of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of submissions have now been submitted since the unidentified family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the post has received notice in the press, 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 notwithstanding first skepticism, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "progressive".
When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unusual character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
But, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
But what did the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the firstborn had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their infant.
The intention: To engage a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the development at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they aim to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor must be someone who went to "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a wide range of hobbies.
Additionally though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, helping their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about success and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.
But, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", could the child pick up so-called cultural influence from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", said Adam. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the private teaching field who express similar doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who provides individual instructors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been educated knowing and practicing both cultures. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can act as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can possibly impart the attributes of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"Based on my background, having a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not instantly create the goal they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience several of the situations they aspire for their son."
He added: "The reality is, personal identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, English culture is something the expert thinks can be educated – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
