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"A household residing in north London is looking for an remarkable and skilled educator to assist their most junior child on his first steps to turning into an English gentleman."

When reading this listing, you might readily skip the phrase "beginning" as mere figurative language.

Yet, it could be the most significant element of this distinctive position posting, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a infant.

Hundreds of responses have already been received since the unnamed family advertised their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".

During the past few weeks, the post has received interest across the press, with numerous questioning why?

Progressive Approach

Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that despite initial doubt, he found the concept "visionary", and "progressive".

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

But, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then become established".

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

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

He said the older sibling had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their younger child.

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

Osmotic Learning

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

It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will adopt the English characteristics they wish to impart.

He explained the tutor must be an individual who attended "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".

"The educator just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.

More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an tool by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's view, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will lead to achievement and create opportunities.

"Taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he comments.

But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "Britishness", might the child pick up what is termed cultural bias from the multicultural family he lives with anyway?

"Certainly", said he. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as soon as we can', because the expense of it is not a concern," he explained.

Impractical

There are some in the tutoring industry who share those doubts.

An education leader, chief executive of Blue Education, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."

He wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of seven, and had been educated understanding and living dual heritages. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.

"The idea that a single person can serve as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a one-year-old child, seems to me idealistic and impractical," he commented.

"In my experience, employing a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will will not automatically produce the result they desire.

"I did not have that kind of mentor, and nevertheless I have been privileged enough to live several of the opportunities they aspire for their son."

He added: "The reality is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."

Purchasing UK Culture

Of course, English culture is something the CEO thinks can be taught – and sold.

"I believe the fact that the world holds us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating