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"A household based in the northern part of London seeks an exceptional and skilled tutor to support their youngest child on his early path to turning into an English gentleman."

Looking at this post, you might easily miss the wording "beginning" as mere a turn of phrase.

But, it could be the crucial element of this distinctive position posting, as it attempts to hire a tutor for a 12-month-old.

Hundreds of applications have since been submitted since the anonymous family published their search for the £180,000 per year tutor, who has to be "an exceptional individual".

During the past few weeks, the post has attracted attention throughout the news, with many questioning why?

Progressive Approach

The CEO, chief executive of Tutors International, which is assisting the family in their hunt, explained that notwithstanding initial doubt, he viewed the concept "visionary", and "advanced".

When he spoke with the family, he mentioned they recognized the atypical nature of their requirement, and how young their son is.

Nevertheless, they explained that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to hire a tutor, as they had held off until their firstborn was five, and by that stage "cultural conditioning had already set in".

But what did the family mean by "cultural bias"?

It's "everything", the expert responded. "The way you eat, the way you speak".

He explained the firstborn had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had taken on their cultural norms. The family informed him they did not want this pattern to recur with their younger child.

The plan: To hire a British tutor, who must speak with RP, to influence the baby right from the beginning.

Osmotic Learning

"A lot of the learning at the start here is kind of absorbed naturally," said the CEO.

It's by means of this osmosis that the family are expecting the child will pick up the UK customs they wish to impart.

The consultant said the tutor had to be somebody who attended "the appropriate educational institutions – comparable categories of schools as the family plan to send their son to".

"The tutor must be the appropriate candidate, they'll be carrying out things they don't even know they're doing, effortlessly," he commented.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed him the successful candidate should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in horse riding, winter sports, artistic pursuits and instrumental training so as to inspire the child in a diverse set of interests.

Furthermore though, he stated the family desired the tutor to enrol the child on a selection of lessons so the child would be "pony-riding and learning an musical instrument by the time they are approximately three years old".

In the family's perspective, assisting their son develop into a "English gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.

"Considering the advantages and disadvantages of that, because it's definitely a class statement," he adds.

However, despite all this guidance in "Britishness", could the child absorb alleged cultural influence from the globally influenced family he resides with regardless?

"Yes", said the CEO. "They realize this could fail, but they've just taken the view of, 'why not attempt it and we should start as quickly as we can', because the price of it is not a concern," he explained.

Overly Optimistic

Several in the education sector who have similar reservations.

Peter Cui, chief executive of Blue Education, who supplies personal educators, wrote that "the development of embracing two identities, or indeed, becoming oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not manufactured."

Peter wrote that he had emigrated from China to the United Kingdom at the age of childhood, and had been educated experiencing and practicing both cultures. He continued to learn at the University of Cambridge.

"The idea that one individual can serve as a living vessel of UK identity, a person who can somehow transplant the characteristics of a English gentleman upon a infant child, seems to me naive and unfeasible," he stated.

"From my perspective, engaging a distinctly UK tutor from babyhood will not necessarily achieve the outcome they hope for.

"I never had such a figure, and yet I have been lucky enough to live numerous of the situations they hope for their son."

He stated: "The fact is, personal identity can not be dictated from the outside; it must be embraced, and it must be internally driven."

Purchasing UK Culture

Naturally, Britishness is something the CEO believes can be instructed – and marketed.

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