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"A family located in north London wants to find an exceptional and qualified educator to support their most junior child on his first steps to becoming an British gentleman."

When reading this post, you might naturally miss the term "first-steps" as just an expression.

However, it may be the most important part of this unique position posting, as it attempts to recruit a mentor for a one-year-old.

Numerous of applications have since been submitted since the unidentified family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who needs to be "someone very special".

During the past few weeks, the listing has gained notice in the media, with many asking why?

Innovative Idea

Adam Caller, head and founder of Tutors International, which is helping the family in their quest, said that in spite of early skepticism, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "advanced".

When he met the family, he said they appreciated the unusual character of their requirement, and how young their son is.

However, they explained that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to get a tutor, as they had postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already taken hold".

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

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

He said the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed him they did not want the same situation to recur with their new baby.

The strategy: To engage a British tutor, who needs to speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.

Natural Absorption

"A lot of the development at the outset here is rather osmotic," stated Adam.

It's through this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the UK customs they aim to cultivate.

Adam explained the tutor had to be someone who attended "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The tutor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they may not realize they're doing, simply by nature," he commented.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have understanding of or interest in horse riding, skiing, the arts and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.

Additionally though, he stated the family hoped the tutor to register the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".

In the family's perspective, assisting their son grow into a "English gentleman" will result in success and create opportunities.

"Considering the rights and wrongs of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he notes.

But, in spite of all this instruction in "Britishness", could the child adopt so-called cultural leaning from the international family he lives with in any case?

"Certainly", answered Adam. "The parents know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he explained.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

Several in the tutoring industry who share similar reservations.

An education leader, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, wrote that "the journey of embracing two identities, or in fact, discovering oneself, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."

The expert noted that he had moved from Asia to the Britain at the time of 7 years old, and had been raised understanding and practicing dual heritages. He continued to be educated at the University of Cambridge.

"The notion that a single person can act as a representation of Britishness, someone who can possibly impart the qualities of a UK sophisticate upon a one-year-old child, seems to me optimistic and unrealistic," he wrote.

"In my experience, having a typically UK tutor from early childhood will will not necessarily produce the outcome they hope for.

"I did not have such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to experience numerous of the opportunities they desire for their son."

He added: "The truth is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."

Buying Britishness

Certainly, UK identity is something Adam hopes can be educated – and marketed.

"I think the reality that the world holds us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating