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"A family residing in north London seeks an exceptional and qualified instructor to support their smallest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."

Looking at this advertisement, you might readily overlook the phrase "beginning" as just a turn of phrase.

Yet, it might be the most important part of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a mentor for a 12-month-old.

Numerous of applications have since been submitted since the unnamed family advertised their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".

During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted attention throughout the media, with many questioning why?

Progressive Approach

Adam Caller, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, said that in spite of first skepticism, he found the idea "far sighted", and "advanced".

When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their demand, and how early in age their son is.

Nevertheless, they explained that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already become established".

What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?

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

He said the elder child had absorbed "extremely delicate, body language" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed the consultant they wished to avoid this pattern to recur with their younger child.

The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.

Osmotic Learning

"A lot of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the expert.

It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they want to cultivate.

He explained the tutor must be someone who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The tutor must be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed him the chosen tutor should preferably also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.

More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".

In the family's minds, guiding their son develop into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and provide access.

"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he notes.

Yet, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?

"Yes", said he. "They know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.

Impractical

Several in the private teaching field who have these concerns.

Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."

He wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the age of childhood, and had been brought up experiencing and living two backgrounds. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.

"The idea that an individual can function as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can somehow impart the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he commented.

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

"I wasn't provided with such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to enjoy several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."

He continued: "The reality is, personal identity should not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."

Buying Britishness

Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be taught – and commercialized.

"I think the situation that the international society regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating