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"A family located in the northern part of London wants to find an exceptional and experienced educator to support their smallest child on his first steps to turning into an British gentleman."

When reading this listing, you might easily skip the phrase "beginning" as mere an expression.

But, it might be the most important element of this unusual position posting, as it seeks to recruit a mentor for a 12-month-old.

Many of submissions have already been received since the anonymous family advertised their request for the £180k-a-year tutor, who has to be "someone very special".

Over the last few weeks, the advert has attracted attention across the news, with numerous wondering why?

Forward-Thinking Method

Adam Caller, head and founder of a global tutoring firm, which is helping the family in their search, said that in spite of initial scepticism, he found the concept "far sighted", and "advanced".

When he spoke with the family, he noted they appreciated the atypical nature of their requirement, and how early in age their son is.

However, they stated that they "were unwilling to delay any longer" to engage a tutor, as they had waited until their elder sibling was five, and by that age "cultural conditioning had already set in".

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

It's "everything", the expert answered. "How you eat, how you speak".

He stated the elder child had adopted "extremely delicate, non-verbal cues" from the family, and had adopted their cultural habits. The family informed him they did not want history to recur with their new baby.

The intention: To hire a UK tutor, who must speak with standard English accent, to guide the baby right from the beginning.

Subtle Influence

"Much of the learning at the outset here is rather acquired indirectly," stated Adam.

It's via this natural absorption that the family are hoping the child will acquire the English characteristics they aim to instil.

The consultant noted the tutor had to be an individual who studied at "the right kinds of schools – comparable categories of schools as the family hope to send their son to".

"The tutor just has to be the suitable individual, they'll be carrying out things they aren't even aware they're doing, effortlessly," he added.

Expense Not a Factor

The family informed the expert the chosen tutor should ideally also have knowledge of or interest in riding, winter sports, creative fields and musical activities so as to inspire the child in a broad spectrum of interests.

Furthermore though, he stated the family wanted the tutor to enrol the child on a variety of courses so the child would be "pony-riding and picking up an instrument by the time they are about three years old".

In the family's view, helping their son grow into a "British gentleman" will result in achievement and create opportunities.

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

Yet, despite all this instruction in "Britishness", would the child pick up alleged cultural influence from the international family he lives with anyway?

"Absolutely", replied Adam. "They understand this could fail, but they've simply adopted the attitude of, 'we should try and let's go as early as we can', because the expense of it is not relevant," he said.

Overly Optimistic

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

Another CEO, chief executive of an educational organization, who also offer personal educators, wrote that "the development of adopting dual cultures, or actually, discovering oneself, is something that must be experienced personally, not designed."

He explained that he had emigrated from Asia to the Britain at the age of childhood, and had been raised experiencing and living dual heritages. He went on to be educated at Cambridge University.

"The idea that one individual can act as a representation of UK identity, someone who can in some way impart the attributes of a UK sophisticate to a infant child, strikes me as idealistic and unrealistic," he wrote.

"In my experience, having a typically English tutor from infancy will will not automatically create the goal they desire.

"I did not have that kind of mentor, and however I have been lucky enough to live many of the opportunities they hope for their son."

He stated: "The reality is, cultural identity can not be forced from the outside influences; it must be chosen, and it must come from within."

Acquiring Englishness

Of course, English culture is something the expert hopes can be educated – and commercialized.

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