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"A household located in North London seeks an remarkable and experienced educator to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."

Upon seeing this listing, you might naturally overlook the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.

But, it may be the most important aspect of this unusual job advert, as it aims to find a mentor for a infant.

Hundreds of applications have now been received since the unnamed family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".

During the past few weeks, the listing has gained attention across the press, with several questioning why?

Forward-Thinking Method

Adam Caller, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their quest, said that despite initial doubt, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "progressive".

When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the unconventional aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.

However, they clarified that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had already taken hold".

But what does the family mean by "cultural bias"?

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

He stated the older sibling had picked up "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their younger child.

The plan: To engage a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby from the very start.

Subtle Influence

"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is somewhat osmotic," stated the expert.

It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to impart.

Adam explained the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.

Cost Not Relevant

The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.

More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up 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 minds, assisting their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.

"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.

Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "English culture", could the child adopt alleged cultural leaning from the international family he lives with anyway?

"Absolutely", said Adam. "The parents know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he explained.

Overly Optimistic

Several in the tutoring industry who share these doubts.

Another CEO, chief executive of Blue Education, who provides individual instructors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."

The expert noted that he had moved from Asia to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been brought up knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.

"The concept that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, an individual who can somehow impart the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he stated.

"From my perspective, employing a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will not automatically produce the goal they want.

"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been privileged enough to enjoy many of the situations they desire for their son."

He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be dictated from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."

Purchasing UK Culture

Of course, Britishness is something the expert believes can be instructed – and commercialized.

"I think the situation that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating