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"A household located in north London seeks an extraordinary and skilled tutor to guide their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."

When reading this advertisement, you might naturally skip the phrase "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.

But, it may be the crucial part of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to recruit a tutor for a one-year-old.

Hundreds of submissions have already been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".

During the past few weeks, the listing has received notice throughout the news, with numerous asking why?

Innovative Idea

A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their search, explained that in spite of first scepticism, he viewed the concept "far sighted", and "innovative".

When he met the family, he mentioned they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how young their son is.

Nevertheless, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had by then become established".

What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?

It's "all-encompassing", Adam replied. "The way you eat, how you speak".

He explained the elder child had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid the same situation to happen again with their infant.

The plan: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.

Osmotic Learning

"A lot of the education at the start here is somewhat osmotic," explained the expert.

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

He said the tutor had to be somebody who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".

"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he said.

Cost Not Relevant

The family explained to Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to influence the child in a wide range of interests.

More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an instrument by the time they are around three years old".

In the family's perspective, guiding 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 undoubtedly a status symbol," he adds.

However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child adopt so-called cultural influence from the international family he is raised by anyway?

"Yes", replied Adam. "The family understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he said.

Impractical

A number of in the tutoring industry who share these reservations.

An education leader, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, commented that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."

He wrote that he had relocated from China to the Britain at the time of seven, and had been raised understanding and embodying both cultures. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.

"The concept that an individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can possibly transplant the attributes of a UK sophisticate onto a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.

"From my perspective, having a typically British tutor from babyhood will not automatically produce the outcome they desire.

"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to enjoy many of the situations they desire for their son."

He continued: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."

Acquiring Englishness

Naturally, Britishness is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.

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