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"A household located in North London is looking for an exceptional and skilled instructor to support their smallest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."

When reading this advertisement, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as just an expression.

But, it could be the crucial part of this unusual job advert, as it seeks to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.

Hundreds of responses have already been received since the unidentified family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".

Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the news, with many wondering why?

Forward-Thinking Method

The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that despite early scepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "innovative".

When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the unusual character of their request, and how young their son is.

However, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already become established".

What precisely does the family indicate by "cultural bias"?

It's "all-encompassing", the expert replied. "How you eat, how you speak".

He said the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to the consultant they wished to avoid history to happen again with their new baby.

The plan: To engage a British tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from the very start.

Osmotic Learning

"A great deal of the education at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," said Adam.

It's through this subtle influence that the family are aiming the child will pick up the English characteristics they wish to instil.

The consultant said the tutor must be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The tutor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he added.

Expense Not a Factor

The family told the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of hobbies.

More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of classes so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's perspective, helping their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in accomplishment and provide access.

"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he comments.

But, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", would the child absorb alleged cultural bias from the globally influenced family he lives with anyway?

"Yes", said he. "The family realize this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as soon as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.

Impractical

There are some in the education sector who have these concerns.

Peter Cui, chief executive of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."

Peter explained that he had emigrated from China to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up experiencing and embodying both cultures. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.

"The notion that an individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can in some way impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate to a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he commented.

"Based on my background, having a distinctly English tutor from early childhood will not necessarily produce the outcome they desire.

"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live several of the opportunities they desire for their son."

He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."

Acquiring Englishness

Of course, Britishness is something the CEO thinks can be instructed – and commercialized.

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