"A family located in north London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced tutor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
However, it could be the most significant element of this unique job advert, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Many of submissions have already been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted attention throughout the press, with several asking why?
Innovative Idea
The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite early doubt, he considered the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".
But what does the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "comprehensive", Adam responded. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He said the firstborn had picked up "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they did not want this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the start here is somewhat osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they want to cultivate.
He noted the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
But, in spite of all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he is raised by regardless?
"Certainly", answered the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
Several in the private teaching field who share these doubts.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
The expert explained that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated understanding and living both cultures. He progressed to learn at Cambridge University.
"The notion that a single person can act as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can in some way impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will does not instantly produce the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something Adam believes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the reality that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
