"A family located in north London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to support their most junior child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."
When reading this post, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it may be the most significant part of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have since been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has received attention across the media, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that despite initial skepticism, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "advanced".
When he consulted the family, he said they understood the unusual aspect of their demand, and how immature their son is.
However, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already taken hold".
But what did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", he responded. "The way you eat, how you speak".
He said the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent history to recur with their younger child.
The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," stated Adam.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to instil.
He said the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Money No Object
The family informed Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's view, guiding their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and open doors.
"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he notes.
But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", would the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with in any case?
"Certainly", said he. "The family realize this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he explained.
Impractical
A number of in the private teaching field who have those reservations.
Peter Cui, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter wrote that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.
"The idea that a single person can act as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman to a infant child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he commented.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily produce the outcome they desire.
"I never had that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience several of the experiences they desire for their son."
He continued: "The fact is, self-identity can not be dictated from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Buying Britishness
Of course, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be educated – and commercialized.
"In my view the situation that the global community regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
