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"A household located in North London seeks an exceptional and skilled instructor to guide their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an English gentleman."

When reading this advertisement, you might easily miss the wording "initial stages" as simple an expression.

Yet, it might be the most significant element of this unique position posting, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a infant.

Hundreds of responses have already been submitted since the unidentified family published their call for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".

In recent few weeks, the listing has received interest throughout the news, with numerous questioning why?

Progressive Approach

The CEO, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their search, said that in spite of first skepticism, he considered the plan "forward-looking", and "progressive".

When he spoke with the family, he said they appreciated the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.

But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then become established".

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

It's "everything", Adam responded. "The manner you eat, how you speak".

He stated the older sibling had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural ways. The family informed him they wished to avoid history to repeat itself with their new baby.

The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who needs to speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.

Natural Absorption

"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," said Adam.

It's through this osmosis that the family are hoping the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.

He said the tutor must be someone who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The instructor just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he added.

Money No Object

The family explained to Adam the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.

More than that though, he explained the family desired the tutor to sign up the child on a variety of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's view, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and open doors.

"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.

However, notwithstanding all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with regardless?

"Yes", answered Adam. "They understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he stated.

Impractical

Several in the private teaching field who have these doubts.

Another CEO, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer personal educators, stated that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."

The expert explained that he had relocated from Asia to the UK at the age of seven, and had been educated understanding and living two backgrounds. He progressed to study at a prestigious UK institution.

"The concept that a single person can act as a living vessel of UK identity, someone who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman to a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he wrote.

"From my perspective, having a typically English tutor from infancy will not automatically achieve the outcome they desire.

"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been privileged enough to enjoy several of the situations they desire for their son."

He added: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be dictated from the external environment; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."

Buying Britishness

Naturally, English culture is something the expert thinks can be educated – and sold.

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