"Parents based in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and qualified educator to support their youngest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
However, it may be the most significant element of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of responses have since been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted notice throughout the media, with numerous wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
The CEO, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he viewed the plan "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.
However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "How you eat, how you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told Adam they wished to avoid this pattern to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A great deal of the learning at the outset here is somewhat acquired indirectly," explained the expert.
It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they want to impart.
He explained the tutor needed to be somebody who studied at "the appropriate educational institutions – similar types of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, alpine skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.
More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, assisting their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and provide access.
"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", said he. "They realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
A number of in the education sector who have similar reservations.
Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."
Peter noted that he had moved from China to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that one individual can act as a representation of English culture, someone who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a typically English tutor from infancy will does not instantly produce the goal they want.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy numerous of the situations they aspire for their son."
He continued: "The truth is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."
Acquiring Englishness
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"I think the fact that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
