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"A household located in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to guide their smallest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."

When reading this post, you might easily skip the wording "beginning" as simple a turn of phrase.

However, it may be the crucial part of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to find a teacher for a 12-month-old.

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

Over the last few weeks, the listing has attracted attention in the press, with numerous wondering why?

Forward-Thinking Method

The CEO, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".

When he met the family, he noted they understood the unconventional character of their requirement, and how young their son is.

Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their firstborn was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already taken hold".

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

It's "all-encompassing", he answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".

He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told him they wished to avoid this pattern to happen again with their new baby.

The intention: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby right from the beginning.

Osmotic Learning

"Much of the development at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the CEO.

It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they want to instil.

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

"The instructor simply needs to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.

Expense Not a Factor

The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of interests.

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

In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in success and provide access.

"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.

Yet, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", would the child adopt what is termed cultural influence from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?

"Certainly", answered the CEO. "They realize this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'we should try and we should start as early as we can', because the cost of it is not relevant," he stated.

Overly Optimistic

Several in the education sector who express these reservations.

Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."

Peter explained that he had moved from the Far East to the UK at the period of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing both cultures. He went on to learn at a prestigious UK institution.

"The notion that one individual can serve as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can possibly transplant the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a infant child, appears idealistic and impractical," he stated.

"Based on my background, employing a distinctly British tutor from infancy will will not automatically produce the goal they want.

"I never had that kind of mentor, and however I have been privileged enough to experience several of the experiences they aspire for their son."

He continued: "The fact is, personal identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."

Buying Britishness

Certainly, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be taught – and sold.

"I think the reality that the international society views us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating