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"A household residing in north London seeks an extraordinary and qualified instructor to support their most junior child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."

Looking at this advertisement, you might readily miss the wording "initial stages" as just figurative language.

However, it might be the crucial aspect of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.

Many of responses have already been submitted since the anonymous family advertised their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".

Over the last few weeks, the advert has gained attention in the press, with numerous questioning why?

Progressive Approach

A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the idea "visionary", and "progressive".

When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unconventional nature of their requirement, 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 firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had already taken hold".

What precisely did the family mean by "cultural predisposition"?

It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".

He said the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their infant.

The intention: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to shape the baby right from the beginning.

Osmotic Learning

"Much of the development at the start here is kind of acquired indirectly," said the expert.

It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the UK customs they want to impart.

Adam explained the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds 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 added.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have understanding of or passion in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.

Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's view, guiding their son become a "English gentleman" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.

"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.

But, in spite of all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural influence from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?

"Absolutely", answered he. "The family know this could fail, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he explained.

Impractical

There are some in the tutoring industry who share those concerns.

An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."

He wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been brought up knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.

"The notion that a single person can serve as a representation of English culture, someone who can possibly impart the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.

"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the goal they hope for.

"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."

He added: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must come from within."

Acquiring Englishness

Of course, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be educated – and commercialized.

"I think the fact that the global community holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating