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"A household residing in North London is looking for an exceptional and experienced tutor to support their smallest child on his initial journey to turning into an English gentleman."

Looking at this advertisement, you might easily overlook the wording "beginning" as just figurative language.

However, it might be the most significant aspect of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to hire a mentor for a infant.

Hundreds of applications have already been sent in since the unnamed family published their call for the £180,000 per year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".

During the past few weeks, the post has attracted attention across the news, with several questioning why?

Forward-Thinking Method

Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is supporting the family in their quest, explained that in spite of first scepticism, he considered the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".

When he met the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical aspect of their demand, and how young their son is.

Nevertheless, they stated that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already set in".

What precisely did the family refer to by "cultural leaning"?

It's "everything", Adam responded. "How you eat, how you speak".

He stated the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family told him they did not want this pattern to happen again with their younger child.

The intention: To bring in a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to shape the baby from day one.

Subtle Influence

"Much of the development at the beginning here is kind of acquired indirectly," explained Adam.

It's by means of this osmosis that the family are aiming the child will acquire the British traits they wish to instil.

Adam said the tutor had to be somebody who studied at "prestigious academies – comparable categories of schools as the family aspire to send their son to".

"The tutor must be the right kind of person, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, simply by nature," he said.

Money No Object

The family explained to the expert the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or passion in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.

Furthermore though, he said the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a range of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".

In the family's minds, guiding their son become a "UK sophisticate" will bring about accomplishment and provide access.

"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a class statement," he adds.

But, notwithstanding all this instruction in "English culture", might the child adopt alleged cultural bias from the multicultural family he resides with in any case?

"Absolutely", said the CEO. "They know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'let's give it a go and let's go as early as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.

Impractical

There are some in the education sector who express those concerns.

Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, commented that "the development of embracing two identities, or in fact, forming one's identity, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."

He wrote that he had moved from China to the UK at the period of seven, and had been raised knowing and embodying two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.

"The concept that one individual can serve as a representation of English culture, a person who can possibly transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman onto a infant child, strikes me as naive and impractical," he stated.

"In my experience, having a quintessentially English tutor from babyhood will will not instantly produce the result they want.

"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous of the experiences they hope for their son."

He stated: "The truth is, personal identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be selected, and it must originate internally."

Purchasing UK Culture

Certainly, English culture is something the CEO hopes can be educated – and commercialized.

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