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"Parents based in the northern part of London seeks an extraordinary and qualified instructor to guide their youngest child on his early path to becoming an British gentleman."

When reading this post, you might naturally miss the wording "first-steps" as mere a turn of phrase.

However, it might be the most important element of this unusual employment listing, as it seeks to recruit a teacher for a 12-month-old.

Many of applications have already been submitted since the unnamed family posted their search for the highly paid tutor, who must be "someone very special".

In recent few weeks, the advert has attracted interest in the press, with many questioning why?

Innovative Idea

A tutoring expert, chief executive of a global tutoring firm, which is assisting the family in their search, stated that despite first doubt, he found the concept "forward-looking", and "innovative".

When he consulted the family, he said they recognized the unconventional aspect of their request, and how early in age their son is.

Nevertheless, they clarified that they "didn't want to wait any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that age "cultural influence had by then become established".

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

It's "everything", Adam answered. "The manner you eat, the manner you speak".

He stated the elder child had picked up "very nuanced, unspoken signals" from the family, and had taken on their cultural habits. The family explained to him they hoped to prevent history to happen again with their younger child.

The strategy: To bring in a UK tutor, who should speak with Received Pronunciation, to shape the baby from day one.

Osmotic Learning

"A great deal of the learning at the start here is rather osmotic," said Adam.

It's via this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the English characteristics they want to impart.

Adam explained the tutor needed to be an individual who went to "prestigious academies – the same kinds of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The educator just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be performing things they don't even know they're doing, simply by nature," he added.

Cost Not Relevant

The family told Adam the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or enthusiasm in riding, alpine skiing, creative fields and musical activities so as to influence the child in a diverse set of passions.

More than that though, he explained the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of courses so the child would be "horseback riding and picking up an musical instrument by the time they are around three years old".

In the family's perspective, guiding their son develop 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 comments.

Yet, despite all this guidance in "English culture", might the child absorb so-called cultural bias from the international family he is raised by anyway?

"Absolutely", said Adam. "The parents understand this might not succeed, but they've just taken the perspective of, 'we should try and we'll proceed as quickly as we can', because the cost of it is irrelevant," he stated.

Idealistic and Unrealistic

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

Peter Cui, head and founder of a tutoring service, who provides personal educators, stated that "the development of becoming bicultural, or actually, becoming oneself, is something that must be grown into, not designed."

Peter explained that he had emigrated from the Far East to the UK at the time of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and embodying dual heritages. He went on to learn at the University of Cambridge.

"The concept that a single person can function as a living vessel of English culture, a person who can in some way transplant the characteristics of a British gentleman onto a infant child, appears idealistic and impractical," he commented.

"Based on my background, employing a distinctly UK tutor from infancy will will not automatically achieve the outcome they want.

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

He stated: "The truth is, personal identity should not be forced from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."

Acquiring Englishness

Naturally, English culture is something Adam thinks can be instructed – and marketed.

"I believe the situation that the international society regards us in this light is something that we should be cherishing|valuing|appreciating