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"Parents located in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and qualified tutor to support their most junior child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."

Upon seeing this advertisement, you might naturally miss the term "initial stages" as just an expression.

Yet, it might be the most important element of this distinctive employment listing, as it seeks to find a tutor for a one-year-old.

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

During the past few weeks, the post has gained interest throughout the press, with many wondering why?

Innovative Idea

A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding first scepticism, he found the idea "visionary", and "progressive".

When he met the family, he said they recognized the atypical character of their request, and how immature 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 age "cultural bias had already become established".

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

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

He explained the elder child had picked up "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they hoped to prevent this pattern to repeat itself with their younger child.

The intention: To hire a English tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.

Subtle Influence

"A great deal of the education at the beginning here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the expert.

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

The consultant explained the tutor had to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The instructor simply needs to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they don't even know they're doing, just naturally," he commented.

Cost Not Relevant

The family informed him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to influence the child in a broad spectrum of passions.

Furthermore though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "equestrian training and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "English gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.

"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.

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

"Absolutely", replied he. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

There are some in the education sector who have these concerns.

Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who also offer private tutors, commented that "the development of becoming bicultural, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."

He noted that he had relocated from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of seven, and had been brought up experiencing and practicing dual heritages. He progressed to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.

"The concept that an individual can serve as a living vessel of English culture, an individual who can in some way transfer the qualities of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he stated.

"From my perspective, employing a distinctly English tutor from infancy will not automatically produce the outcome they want.

"I did not have such a tutor, and yet I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they desire for their son."

He stated: "The fact is, self-identity can not be imposed from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."

Acquiring Englishness

Certainly, English culture is something the expert believes can be educated – and marketed.

"In my view the reality that the international society views us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating