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"A household based in North London wants to find an exceptional and qualified tutor to guide their most junior child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."

When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "first-steps" as simple figurative language.

However, it may be the crucial element of this unusual job advert, as it attempts to find a mentor for a one-year-old.

Hundreds of responses have now been received since the unnamed family advertised their request for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".

In recent few weeks, the post has gained notice throughout the press, with several questioning why?

Innovative Idea

Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, explained that despite early skepticism, he viewed the concept "forward-looking", and "advanced".

When he consulted the family, he said they understood the atypical character of their request, and how young their son is.

Nevertheless, they stated that they "preferred not to postpone any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural bias had already become established".

But what did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?

It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The way you eat, the way you speak".

He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told the consultant they did not want this pattern to recur with their infant.

The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with RP, to guide the baby from the very start.

Subtle Influence

"A lot of the development at the beginning here is somewhat acquired indirectly," said Adam.

It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to impart.

He noted the tutor had to be someone who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The tutor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.

Money No Object

The family told Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and music so as to inspire 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 range of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "British gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.

"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he comments.

Yet, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?

"Yes", answered Adam. "They realize this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.

Overly Optimistic

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

Peter Cui, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who provides personal educators, wrote that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."

He wrote that he had relocated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and practicing both cultures. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.

"The concept that one individual can function as a embodiment of English culture, someone who can possibly transfer the qualities of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he stated.

"From my perspective, engaging a quintessentially British tutor from early childhood will does not automatically create the outcome they hope for.

"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy numerous of the opportunities they aspire for their son."

He added: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."

Purchasing UK Culture

Of course, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.

"I believe the reality that the global community views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating