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"A family based in North London is looking for an extraordinary and experienced educator to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to growing into an English gentleman."

Looking at this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as mere a turn of phrase.

Yet, it might be the most significant aspect of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to hire a teacher for a one-year-old.

Many of submissions have already been submitted since the unnamed family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".

During the past few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the media, with several asking why?

Forward-Thinking Method

A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their hunt, said that notwithstanding first skepticism, he found the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".

When he met the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unconventional character of their demand, and how young their son is.

However, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to get a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already taken hold".

What precisely did the family mean by "cultural bias"?

It's "everything", the expert answered. "How you eat, the way you speak".

He stated the older sibling had absorbed "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to Adam they wished to avoid history to happen again with their infant.

The plan: To hire a English tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to influence the baby from the very start.

Osmotic Learning

"A great deal of the development at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," stated Adam.

It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the British traits they wish to instil.

Adam noted the tutor must be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The educator simply needs to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.

Money No Object

The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.

More than that though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of classes so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's minds, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and provide access.

"For all the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.

But, in spite of all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child absorb so-called cultural influence from the globally influenced family he is raised by anyway?

"Certainly", said Adam. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he stated.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

A number of in the private teaching field who have similar doubts.

An education leader, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."

He noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been educated understanding and embodying both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.

"The idea that an individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a British gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unrealistic," he stated.

"In my experience, engaging a distinctly British tutor from early childhood will not instantly produce the outcome they hope for.

"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to live many of the opportunities they aspire for their son."

He continued: "The reality is, self-identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."

Acquiring Englishness

Of course, Britishness is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and sold.

"In my view the fact that the international society views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating