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"A family residing in north London wants to find an exceptional and skilled educator to guide their youngest child on his first steps to growing into an English gentleman."

Upon seeing this advertisement, you might readily skip the wording "first-steps" as just figurative language.

Yet, it could be the most significant aspect of this unusual position posting, as it aims to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.

Hundreds of applications have since been received since the anonymous family published their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who must be "a uniquely qualified person".

In recent few weeks, the advert has received attention in the press, with several wondering why?

Forward-Thinking Method

The CEO, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding early scepticism, he found the plan "far sighted", and "progressive".

When he consulted the family, he noted they understood the atypical nature of their demand, and how immature their son is.

Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had waited until their older child was five, and by that point "cultural influence had already set in".

What exactly does the family indicate by "cultural leaning"?

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

He explained the firstborn had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had assumed their cultural norms. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent this pattern to recur with their infant.

The plan: To bring in a English tutor, who must speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from the very start.

Osmotic Learning

"A lot of the development at the start here is rather acquired indirectly," explained Adam.

It's by means of this natural absorption that the family are aiming the child will adopt the UK customs they aim to instil.

He noted the tutor needed to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The instructor just has to be the right kind of person, they'll be doing things they aren't even aware they're doing, just naturally," he said.

Cost Not Relevant

The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have knowledge of or interest in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of passions.

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

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

"Taking into account the pros and cons of that, because it's certainly a social class indicator," he comments.

However, despite all this guidance in "UK identity", might the child pick up what is termed cultural leaning from the multicultural family he lives with in any case?

"Yes", answered the CEO. "The parents know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'let's give it a go and we should start as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is not a concern," he explained.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

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

An education leader, head and founder of a tutoring service, who supplies individual instructors, wrote that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."

The expert noted that he had relocated from the Far East to the UK at the period of seven, and had been brought up understanding and living dual heritages. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.

"The notion that one individual can act as a representation of Britishness, an individual who can somehow transfer the attributes of a English gentleman to a one-year-old child, strikes me as optimistic and impractical," he wrote.

"Based on my background, having a distinctly British tutor from infancy will does not instantly achieve the outcome they hope for.

"I wasn't provided with such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live numerous of the opportunities they hope for their son."

He added: "The truth is, cultural identity cannot be forced from the outside influences; it must be selected, and it must be internally driven."

Buying Britishness

Naturally, Britishness is something the expert believes can be taught – and sold.

"In my view the fact that the world regards us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating