"A household located in north London wants to find an extraordinary and skilled educator to assist their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."
When reading this listing, you might easily miss the term "first-steps" as just an expression.
Yet, it may be the crucial part of this unique position posting, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a infant.
Numerous of applications have now been submitted since the unnamed family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "an exceptional individual".
In recent few weeks, the post has attracted interest in the media, with numerous asking why?
Innovative Idea
A tutoring expert, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, said that notwithstanding initial scepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".
When he met the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual character of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.
Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then taken hold".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?
It's "all-encompassing", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".
He explained the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told him they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from day one.
Osmotic Learning
"Much of the education at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," said the CEO.
It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are hoping the child will pick up the British traits they want to instil.
The consultant noted the tutor had to be someone who went to "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".
"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.
Money No Object
The family told him the chosen tutor should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.
More than that though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are about three years old".
In the family's minds, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he notes.
However, despite all this tutelage in "English culture", would the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the international family he resides with anyway?
"Yes", said the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he stated.
Idealistic and Unrealistic
There are some in the tutoring industry who have similar reservations.
Another CEO, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."
The expert wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the period of childhood, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.
"The notion that one individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can somehow transplant the qualities of a English gentleman upon a infant child, appears idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.
"From my perspective, having a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will not automatically achieve the goal they want.
"I never had such a tutor, and nevertheless I have been lucky enough to live many of the experiences they aspire for their son."
He added: "The fact is, self-identity should not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."
Purchasing UK Culture
Certainly, English culture is something the expert thinks can be taught – and sold.
"I believe the reality that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
