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"A family based in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and skilled tutor to assist their most junior child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."

Looking at this post, you might easily miss the wording "first-steps" as just an expression.

However, it may be the most significant element of this distinctive position posting, as it aims to recruit a tutor for a infant.

Numerous of submissions have already been sent in since the anonymous family published their search for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".

In recent few weeks, the post has gained interest in the news, with many wondering why?

Forward-Thinking Method

A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is helping the family in their search, stated that notwithstanding first doubt, he found the idea "forward-looking", and "innovative".

When he consulted the family, he noted they appreciated the unusual aspect of their requirement, and how young their son is.

Nevertheless, they clarified that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural bias had already set in".

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

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

He said the firstborn had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their infant.

The intention: To hire a English tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to influence the baby from day one.

Subtle Influence

"A lot of the learning at the outset here is rather absorbed naturally," explained the expert.

It's by means of this subtle influence that the family are expecting the child will pick up the British traits they want to instil.

He said the tutor must be somebody who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

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

Expense Not a Factor

The family explained to him the selected educator should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, alpine skiing, artistic pursuits and music so as to inspire the child in a wide range of passions.

Furthermore though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to register the child on a range of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".

In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will bring about success and open doors.

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

But, notwithstanding all this tutelage in "UK identity", might the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he is raised by in any case?

"Absolutely", said he. "The family know this could fail, but they've simply adopted the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is irrelevant," he said.

Overly Optimistic

Several in the education sector who share these reservations.

Another CEO, head and founder of Blue Education, who supplies individual instructors, stated that "the process of embracing two identities, or indeed, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not engineered."

He noted that he had moved from the Far East to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been raised knowing and practicing two backgrounds. He went on to learn at Cambridge University.

"The notion that an individual can act as a representation of Britishness, a person who can possibly impart the qualities of a English gentleman upon a 12-month-old child, seems to me naive and impractical," he wrote.

"Based on my background, employing a typically English tutor from babyhood will not automatically create the outcome they hope for.

"I did not have that kind of mentor, and yet I have been fortunate enough to experience several of the situations they aspire for their son."

He stated: "The fact is, self-identity cannot be dictated from the outside; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."

Purchasing UK Culture

Certainly, English culture is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and sold.

"In my view the situation that the global community regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating