"A family located in North London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled tutor to assist their most junior child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it could be the crucial element of this unique job advert, as it aims to find a tutor for a one-year-old.
Many of responses have now been received since the unnamed family posted their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has received notice across the media, with several questioning why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that despite first scepticism, he found the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".
When he consulted the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual character of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained 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 stage "cultural bias had already set in".
What precisely does the family mean by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".
He explained the older sibling had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed him they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their new baby.
The intention: To hire a British tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to influence the baby from the very start.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they wish to impart.
The consultant explained the tutor must be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The instructor 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 said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's undoubtedly a social class indicator," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child pick up alleged cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?
"Certainly", replied Adam. "The parents know this could fail, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he stated.
Overly Optimistic
There are some in the education sector who have those doubts.
Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."
He wrote that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the period of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and living both cultures. He continued to study at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can function as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can in some way transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he stated.
"In my experience, employing a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will does not automatically produce the outcome they want.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be imposed from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and marketed.
"In my view the situation that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
