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"A family based in north London wants to find an remarkable and qualified educator to support their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."

Looking at this listing, you might readily overlook the phrase "first-steps" as mere an expression.

Yet, it might be the crucial element of this unusual position posting, as it aims to hire a mentor for a 12-month-old.

Many of submissions have already been submitted since the unnamed family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".

Over the last few weeks, the post has received attention in the press, with many asking why?

Innovative Idea

A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that notwithstanding early scepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".

When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they appreciated the unusual character of their requirement, and how immature their son is.

But, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural influence had already taken hold".

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

It's "all-encompassing", he replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".

He stated the elder child had absorbed "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they hoped to prevent the same situation to recur with their younger child.

The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who should speak with RP, to guide the baby right from the beginning.

Natural Absorption

"A lot of the development at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," explained Adam.

It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the UK customs they wish to impart.

Adam noted the tutor had to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The educator just has to be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, effortlessly," he said.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, creative fields and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of interests.

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

In the family's view, guiding their son grow into a "British gentleman" will lead to accomplishment and create opportunities.

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

However, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child absorb alleged cultural influence from the international family he lives with anyway?

"Yes", said Adam. "The family know this may not work, but they've just taken the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

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

Peter Cui, CEO and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be lived into, not manufactured."

He noted that he had emigrated from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at a prestigious UK institution.

"The concept that a single person can function as a representation of Britishness, someone who can possibly impart the qualities of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, strikes me as idealistic and impractical," he wrote.

"From my perspective, employing a typically British tutor from infancy will does not necessarily create the outcome they want.

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

He stated: "The fact is, cultural identity cannot be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must be internally driven."

Acquiring Englishness

Certainly, English culture is something the expert thinks can be instructed – and marketed.

"I think the fact that the global community regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating