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"A household located in north London wants to find an extraordinary and qualified educator to assist their youngest child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."

When reading this listing, you might readily overlook the term "first-steps" as just an expression.

However, it may be the most significant aspect of this unique job advert, as it attempts to hire a teacher for a 12-month-old.

Many of applications have since been sent in since the unnamed family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "an exceptional individual".

In recent few weeks, the advert has gained interest in the media, with several questioning why?

Innovative Idea

Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that despite early scepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "innovative".

When he spoke with the family, he noted they understood the unusual nature of their requirement, and how immature their son is.

However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that point "cultural conditioning had by then set in".

What precisely did the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?

It's "everything", he answered. "How you eat, how you speak".

He stated the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told him they hoped to prevent the same situation to happen again with their infant.

The strategy: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from the very start.

Subtle Influence

"A lot of the learning at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," explained Adam.

It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they wish to cultivate.

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

"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he added.

Expense Not a Factor

The family explained to him the successful candidate should ideally also have familiarity of or passion in riding, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a wide range of hobbies.

Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "horseback riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".

In the family's view, guiding their son develop into a "British gentleman" will bring about achievement and open doors.

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

Yet, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the international family he lives with anyway?

"Certainly", said he. "The family know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

A number of in the tutoring industry who express similar doubts.

Another CEO, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, commented that "the journey of becoming bicultural, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."

Peter wrote that he had moved from China to the UK at the time of 7 years old, and had been brought up understanding and practicing dual heritages. He went on to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.

"The concept that a single person can act as a embodiment of UK identity, someone who can possibly impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate onto a infant child, appears idealistic and impractical," he wrote.

"In my experience, having a quintessentially English tutor from early childhood will does not necessarily produce the goal they desire.

"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to live many of the experiences they hope for their son."

He continued: "The reality is, cultural identity should not be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."

Buying Britishness

Of course, English culture is something Adam thinks can be educated – and commercialized.

"I think the fact that the world regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating