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"A household based in the northern part of London is looking for an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."

Looking at this post, you might easily overlook the term "first-steps" as simple figurative language.

But, it may be the most significant part of this unusual employment listing, as it attempts to find a teacher for a one-year-old.

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

In recent few weeks, the listing has received interest across the media, with many questioning why?

Innovative Idea

Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their search, said that despite first doubt, he found the concept "visionary", and "advanced".

When he met the family, he noted they recognized the unconventional nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.

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

What exactly does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?

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

He said the elder child had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family told him they hoped to prevent history to repeat itself with their infant.

The intention: To engage a UK tutor, who should speak with RP, to shape the baby from day one.

Subtle Influence

"A great deal of the development at the beginning here is kind of osmotic," stated the CEO.

It's through this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they wish to instil.

The consultant 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 suitable individual, they'll be performing things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.

Money No Object

The family told the expert the selected educator should ideally also have understanding of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to shape the child in a diverse set of interests.

More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of classes 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 perspective, guiding their son grow into a "UK sophisticate" will result in accomplishment and create opportunities.

"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a status symbol," he comments.

However, notwithstanding all this guidance in "English culture", could the child pick up so-called cultural leaning from the international family he resides with in any case?

"Certainly", said he. "The family understand this may not work, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he said.

Impractical

Several in the education sector who share similar concerns.

An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not designed."

Peter explained that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the period of seven, and had been educated knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.

"The idea that a single person can serve as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can in some way transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman to a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he commented.

"From my perspective, having a quintessentially UK tutor from early childhood will does not instantly produce the result they desire.

"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the situations they aspire for their son."

He added: "The truth is, self-identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."

Acquiring Englishness

Of course, Britishness is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.

"I believe the reality that the international society holds us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating