"A household based in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced educator to guide their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an British gentleman."
Looking at this listing, you might easily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.
Yet, it may be the most significant part of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to hire a mentor for a infant.
Hundreds of submissions have now been received since the anonymous family advertised their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "someone very special".
Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted interest in the press, with several wondering why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then set in".
What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?
It's "everything", Adam replied. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".
He stated the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.
The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"A great deal of the education at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the expert.
It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will pick up the English characteristics they aim to instil.
He explained the tutor needed to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's view, assisting their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.
"For all the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he adds.
But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child absorb what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with anyway?
"Certainly", answered he. "The family realize this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he stated.
Impractical
A number of in the private teaching field who have similar doubts.
Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides private tutors, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."
The expert explained that he had moved from the Far East to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.
"The notion that a single person can serve as a living vessel of English culture, someone who can possibly transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, appears naive and unrealistic," he stated.
"Based on my background, employing a distinctly British tutor from babyhood will will not instantly achieve the goal they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with that kind of mentor, and yet I have been lucky enough to live many of the opportunities they desire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Purchasing UK Culture
Of course, UK identity is something Adam believes can be instructed – and sold.
"I think the situation that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
