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"A family based in north London is looking for an remarkable and skilled educator to assist their smallest child on his initial journey to becoming an English gentleman."

Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily miss the phrase "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.

Yet, it might be the most important part of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.

Numerous of submissions have since been received since the unidentified family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".

Over the last few weeks, the post has received notice across the news, with numerous questioning why?

Innovative Idea

The CEO, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their quest, explained that despite initial scepticism, he found the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".

When he consulted the family, he noted they recognized the atypical nature of their request, and how young their son is.

However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had by then become established".

But what did the family indicate by "cultural predisposition"?

It's "everything", the expert answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".

He said the firstborn had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed the consultant they did not want the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.

The strategy: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby right from the beginning.

Osmotic Learning

"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat absorbed naturally," explained Adam.

It's via this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to instil.

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

"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.

Cost Not Relevant

The family told Adam the selected educator should preferably also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to influence the child in a wide range of passions.

Additionally though, he said the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".

In the family's minds, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to success and provide access.

"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.

However, despite all this instruction in "UK identity", might the child absorb what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?

"Yes", said the CEO. "The parents realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the perspective of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as soon as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.

Impractical

Several in the tutoring industry who share these doubts.

Peter Cui, head and founder of an educational organization, who supplies personal educators, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or indeed, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not engineered."

Peter noted that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been educated knowing and embodying dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.

"The notion that a single person can serve as a representation of Britishness, someone who can in some way transfer the attributes of a English gentleman to a infant child, seems to me optimistic and impractical," he commented.

"From my perspective, engaging a typically English tutor from babyhood will does not necessarily create the outcome they want.

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

He stated: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."

Buying Britishness

Certainly, UK identity is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and marketed.

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