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"Parents based in north London wants to find an extraordinary and experienced educator to support their youngest child on his early path to growing into an English gentleman."

Upon seeing this advertisement, you might easily skip the term "initial stages" as just a turn of phrase.

Yet, it may be the crucial aspect of this unusual position posting, as it attempts to find a tutor for a infant.

Many of responses have since been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the highly paid tutor, who has to be "a uniquely qualified person".

In recent few weeks, the post has received interest throughout the news, with several questioning why?

Forward-Thinking Method

A tutoring expert, CEO and founder of an education consultancy, which is assisting the family in their quest, stated that notwithstanding early doubt, he viewed the plan "far sighted", and "innovative".

When he spoke with the family, he said they recognized the atypical aspect of their request, 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 postponed until their older child was five, and by that age "cultural influence had already set in".

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

It's "comprehensive", Adam replied. "The way you eat, the manner you speak".

He said the elder child had adopted "very nuanced, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural norms. The family informed him they wished to avoid the same situation to repeat itself with their new baby.

The plan: To hire a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to guide the baby from day one.

Subtle Influence

"Much of the development at the outset here is kind of absorbed naturally," stated the expert.

It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the British traits they want to instil.

He explained the tutor needed to be an individual who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – the same kinds of schools as the family hope 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 added.

Money No Object

The family explained to him the selected educator should preferably also have familiarity of or enthusiasm in equestrian activities, winter sports, the arts and instrumental training so as to shape the child in a broad spectrum of hobbies.

More than that though, he explained the family hoped the tutor to sign up the child on a range of courses so the child would be "equestrian training and starting an instrument by the time they are around three years old".

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

"For all the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's certainly a status symbol," he notes.

However, in spite of all this instruction in "UK identity", could the child adopt what is termed cultural leaning from the international family he is raised by anyway?

"Absolutely", replied he. "They realize this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'why not attempt it and let's go as early as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he explained.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

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

Peter Cui, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer private tutors, stated that "the journey of adopting dual cultures, or actually, forming one's identity, is something that must be grown into, not manufactured."

Peter wrote that he had emigrated from the Far East to the Britain at the age of 7 years old, and had been brought up knowing and embodying both cultures. He progressed to be educated at Cambridge University.

"The notion that a single person can function as a embodiment of English culture, an individual who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman upon a one-year-old child, strikes me as naive and unrealistic," he wrote.

"In my experience, engaging a quintessentially UK tutor from infancy will does not necessarily produce the outcome they hope for.

"I never had such a tutor, and yet I have been privileged enough to live several of the opportunities they hope for their son."

He added: "The reality is, self-identity should not be imposed from the outside; it must be selected, and it must come from within."

Buying Britishness

Of course, UK identity is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and sold.

"I think the reality that the global community views us in this respect is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating