"Parents based in north London is looking for an extraordinary and skilled educator to guide their smallest child on his early path to turning into an British gentleman."
Looking at this advertisement, you might readily skip the wording "first-steps" as simple figurative language.
Yet, it could be the crucial part of this unique position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Numerous of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family posted their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".
In recent few weeks, the listing has received interest in the media, with numerous asking why?
Progressive Approach
Adam Caller, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their search, said that despite first scepticism, he found the concept "visionary", and "innovative".
When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the unconventional character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already set in".
But what did the family mean by "cultural bias"?
It's "comprehensive", he answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He stated the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their infant.
The intention: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.
Osmotic Learning
"A lot of the education at the outset here is rather osmotic," explained the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the British traits they want to cultivate.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be an individual who went to "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he added.
Cost Not Relevant
The family explained to him the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, winter sports, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.
More than that though, he said the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are around three years old".
In the family's perspective, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"Taking into account the rights and wrongs of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.
However, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the international family he resides with in any case?
"Yes", said the CEO. "The family realize this may not work, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
Several in the private teaching field who have those concerns.
An education leader, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."
Peter explained that he had relocated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can function as a embodiment of Britishness, a person who can in some way impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.
"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from early childhood will not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the situations they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Buying Britishness
Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be educated – and sold.
"In my view the reality that the global community views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
