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"Parents based in north London wants to find an exceptional and experienced educator to support their youngest child on his early path to becoming an English gentleman."

When reading this post, you might readily miss the term "initial stages" as simple figurative language.

However, it might be the most significant element of this unique employment listing, as it attempts to find a mentor for a one-year-old.

Numerous of applications have now been sent in since the anonymous family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".

During the past few weeks, the advert has attracted attention in the press, with several questioning why?

Progressive Approach

The CEO, chief executive of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding initial skepticism, he viewed the plan "visionary", and "innovative".

When he met the family, he noted they understood the unusual nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.

However, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had postponed until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then become established".

What exactly does the family mean by "cultural bias"?

It's "all-encompassing", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, how you speak".

He explained the elder child had adopted "really subtle, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural ways. The family informed Adam they did not want history to recur with their infant.

The plan: To bring in a British tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby right from the beginning.

Osmotic Learning

"Much of the learning at the beginning here is rather absorbed naturally," stated Adam.

It's through this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will adopt the UK customs they want to impart.

Adam noted the tutor must 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 suitable individual, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.

Cost Not Relevant

The family explained to him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to shape the child in a wide range of hobbies.

More than that though, he said the family wanted the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".

In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "English gentleman" will lead to success and open doors.

"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a status symbol," he notes.

But, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", might the child adopt what is termed cultural bias from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?

"Certainly", said the CEO. "They know this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.

Impractical

Several in the tutoring industry who have these concerns.

Another CEO, CEO and founder of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the process of becoming bicultural, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."

He wrote that he had moved from Asia to the United Kingdom at the age of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and embodying two backgrounds. He continued to be educated at a prestigious UK institution.

"The concept that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can possibly impart the characteristics of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me naive and unrealistic," he wrote.

"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will does not instantly achieve the goal they hope for.

"I did not have such a figure, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience many of the opportunities they desire for their son."

He continued: "The fact is, cultural identity can not be imposed from the external environment; it must be chosen, and it must originate internally."

Purchasing UK Culture

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

"I believe the situation that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating