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"A family based in north London is looking for an exceptional and skilled tutor to assist their most junior child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."

When reading this post, you might easily skip the phrase "first-steps" as simple a turn of phrase.

However, it might be the most significant element of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to find a teacher for a infant.

Many of applications have already been sent in since the anonymous family posted their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who needs to be "a uniquely qualified person".

During the past few weeks, the post has attracted interest throughout the press, with numerous wondering why?

Forward-Thinking Method

A tutoring expert, head and founder of an education consultancy, which is supporting the family in their quest, stated that despite early scepticism, he viewed the idea "far sighted", and "progressive".

When he spoke with the family, he said they understood the atypical aspect of their requirement, and how immature their son is.

However, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural bias had by then set in".

But what does the family mean by "cultural bias"?

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

He explained the older sibling had adopted "extremely delicate, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family explained to Adam they did not want this pattern to recur with their younger child.

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

Natural Absorption

"Much of the education at the start here is somewhat osmotic," stated the expert.

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

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

"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and music so as to influence the child in a diverse set of interests.

Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's minds, helping their son develop into a "UK sophisticate" will bring about achievement and create opportunities.

"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's undoubtedly a class statement," he comments.

However, in spite of all this guidance in "Britishness", might the child adopt so-called cultural bias from the multicultural family he is raised by regardless?

"Yes", answered the CEO. "They know this may not work, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'why not attempt it and we'll proceed as early as we can', because the price of it is not relevant," he said.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

Several in the tutoring industry who share those concerns.

An education leader, CEO and founder of Blue Education, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the process of adopting dual cultures, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be lived into, not engineered."

He noted that he had emigrated from Asia to the UK at the period of 7 years old, and had been raised experiencing and living two backgrounds. He continued to study at the University of Cambridge.

"The notion that an individual can act as a embodiment of UK identity, a person who can somehow transfer the characteristics of a English gentleman to a 12-month-old child, seems to me idealistic and unfeasible," he stated.

"Based on my background, having a typically English tutor from infancy will not necessarily achieve the outcome they desire.

"I never had such a tutor, and however I have been lucky enough to experience many of the situations they hope for their son."

He continued: "The fact is, self-identity should not be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."

Purchasing UK Culture

Certainly, Britishness is something the expert believes can be educated – and sold.

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