"A family residing in north London is looking for an remarkable and experienced educator to support their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily miss the wording "first-steps" as mere an expression.
Yet, it might be the most important aspect of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
During the past few weeks, the post has attracted interest throughout the news, with several questioning why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, explained that notwithstanding first doubt, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unconventional character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "everything", he replied. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their new baby.
The intention: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," said Adam.
It's through this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to instil.
He said the tutor had to be somebody who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he commented.
Money No Object
The family explained to the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, skiing, creative fields and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.
Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.
"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.
However, in spite of all this tutelage in "English culture", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with anyway?
"Certainly", answered Adam. "The family know this could fail, but they've merely embraced the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he said.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the tutoring industry who have those doubts.
Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who supplies private tutors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."
He explained that he had moved from China to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at the University of Cambridge.
"The concept that one individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, a person who can somehow transplant the qualities of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly UK tutor from early childhood will will not instantly achieve the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been privileged enough to experience many of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.
"I think the situation that the international society holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
