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"Parents located in North London seeks an extraordinary and qualified tutor to assist their smallest child on his early path to growing into an British gentleman."

Upon seeing this post, you might naturally skip the wording "first-steps" as just a turn of phrase.

Yet, it might be the most significant element of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to find a tutor for a 12-month-old.

Numerous of applications have now been submitted since the anonymous family published their call for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".

During the past few weeks, the advert has received attention throughout the press, with many questioning why?

Progressive Approach

Adam Caller, CEO and founder of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, stated that notwithstanding first scepticism, he considered the idea "forward-looking", and "progressive".

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

But, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had held off until their elder sibling was five, and by that stage "cultural bias had by then taken hold".

What precisely does the family refer to by "cultural bias"?

It's "comprehensive", he replied. "How you eat, the manner you speak".

He stated the older sibling had absorbed "really subtle, body language" from the family, and had assumed their cultural habits. The family told Adam they wished to avoid the same situation to recur with their infant.

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

Natural Absorption

"A great deal of the education at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," stated the expert.

It's via this natural absorption that the family are expecting the child will acquire the English characteristics they wish to cultivate.

Adam said the tutor must be somebody who attended "the right kinds of schools – similar types of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The educator must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be performing things they may not realize they're doing, just naturally," he said.

Money No Object

The family told Adam the successful candidate should preferably also have familiarity of or interest in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of passions.

Additionally though, he said the family desired the tutor to register the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and learning an tool by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's perspective, helping their son become a "British gentleman" will lead to achievement and open doors.

"Considering the pros and cons of that, because it's definitely a social class indicator," he adds.

But, notwithstanding all this guidance in "UK identity", would the child pick up so-called cultural bias from the international family he lives with anyway?

"Absolutely", answered Adam. "They know this might not succeed, but they've merely embraced the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the expense of it is irrelevant," he stated.

Impractical

There are some in the private teaching field who have those doubts.

Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer individual instructors, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."

Peter wrote that he had relocated from Asia to the Britain at the time of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and living two backgrounds. He went on to study at the University of Cambridge.

"The idea that an individual can serve as a representation of English culture, someone who can somehow impart the qualities of a British gentleman to a 12-month-old child, appears optimistic and unfeasible," he wrote.

"Based on my background, employing a quintessentially British tutor from infancy will does not automatically create the result they hope for.

"I never had such a figure, and however I have been privileged enough to live several of the situations they desire for their son."

He continued: "The reality is, self-identity can not be imposed from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must originate internally."

Buying Britishness

Certainly, UK identity is something the expert hopes can be instructed – and commercialized.

"In my view the reality that the international society regards us in this regard is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating