"A family based in North London wants to find an remarkable and skilled tutor to guide their youngest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."
Looking at this post, you might readily miss the wording "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it might be the most significant aspect of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.
Hundreds of submissions have since been received since the unidentified family published their request for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the media, with many asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding early skepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical aspect of their request, and how immature their son is.
Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".
What exactly did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "How you eat, how you speak".
He explained the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their infant.
The plan: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby right from the beginning.
Natural Absorption
"A lot of the learning at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they aim to cultivate.
Adam explained the tutor needed to be someone who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a diverse set of hobbies.
Furthermore though, he said the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and open doors.
"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, despite all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the international family he lives with regardless?
"Yes", replied the CEO. "They realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he explained.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who share those reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the journey of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been raised understanding and living dual heritages. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.
"The idea that an individual can act as a representation of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and unrealistic," he commented.
"In my experience, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will will not automatically produce the result they desire.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the experiences they desire for their son."
He added: "The truth is, personal identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."
Purchasing UK Culture
Naturally, Britishness is something Adam thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the reality that the world views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
