"A household residing in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."
Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily skip the phrase "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.
Yet, it might be the crucial part of this distinctive job advert, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a one-year-old.
Hundreds of responses have now been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".
During the past few weeks, the listing has received attention across the press, with several asking why?
Forward-Thinking Method
A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding first doubt, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "advanced".
When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unconventional nature of their request, and how immature their son is.
But, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already set in".
What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural bias"?
It's "everything", the expert responded. "How you eat, the way you speak".
He explained the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they did not want history to happen again with their younger child.
The strategy: To engage a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.
Natural Absorption
"Much of the education at the start here is rather absorbed naturally," stated the CEO.
It's through this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to instil.
Adam explained the tutor must be an individual who went to "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".
"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.
Expense Not a Factor
The family told Adam the chosen tutor should ideally also have understanding of or interest in riding, winter sports, creative fields and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of interests.
Additionally though, he stated the family desired the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an tool by the time they are approximately three years old".
In the family's perspective, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to success and provide access.
"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.
Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb alleged cultural influence from the international family he resides with regardless?
"Certainly", answered he. "The parents realize this might not succeed, but they've just taken the view of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.
Impractical
A number of in the tutoring industry who share those concerns.
An education leader, chief executive of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."
The expert noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.
"The concept that an individual can serve as a representation of English culture, an individual who can in some way impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a 12-month-old child, appears naive and unfeasible," he wrote.
"From my perspective, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will does not instantly create the outcome they hope for.
"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience many of the opportunities they hope for their son."
He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."
Acquiring Englishness
Certainly, Britishness is something the expert thinks can be taught – and marketed.
"In my view the fact that the world regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating
