Pointless Yesterday..

[janzman]

..did anyone catch the round on The Battle of Waterloo...
In which country is the village of Waterloo.....England
What is the date of the Battle of Waterloo......1500s

Contestant didnt try for who commanded the English armies or who was defeated (I cant remember question 5)

I find it astonishing that this historical event was obviously not taught to the young man and even more surprising is that he has never come across it in his entire life....I was secretly waiting for the answer, Abba.

[dannyk13]

Do they even teach history in schools any more?

[Butterbun]

As quite a lot of the questions are about football, maybe as young men, that's what they were expecting. People usually gen up on certain things only.

[gness]

Wasn't it....the playing fields of which school, Janz....Eton.......

It's easy to jaw drop at some answers when you're on your sofa......but to never have come across The Battle of Waterloo is odd.....x

[janzman]

Thanks for the reminder gness.

[Haggisdj]

I thought exactly the same. Mentioned it to a thirty year old work colleague who informed me they were not taught such things at school.

[whiskeryron]

Who started the battle of Waterloo ? The first one to pull the chain.

[Cloverjo]

At the time I was about to leave school, in the late 80s, facts like dates etc. weren't taught in history lessons. It was all about learning about how to find things out yourself and whether a document was a primary source or secondary source. Very tedious and I learnt nothing. I suspect history teaching hasn't changed much since then.

[gness]

I recall little of my history lessons in school other than MrC chain smoking as he studied the racing papers.......but since leaving school reading, listening and quizzing has given me a passable degree of general knowledge.....

But I do hate the football questions!......☺

[Cloverjo]

Gness, you've reminded me of two of my history teachers. One used to file his nails on a matchbox while making us copy word for word a few pages of a textbook. The other would tell us about his childhood in Wales and the cakes his mother made. No wonder I learned nothing about history, apart from reading since then.

[gness]

Clover......I know more about our science teacher being gassed.....complete with a demonstration which involved one of us throwing open the window and two others dragging him to it in case it happened again....than I do about science....

But the best was a year with a maths teacher who filled the blackboards with sums and told us to talk amongst ourselves but if anyone came in start doing the sums......☺

[aelmpvw]

any science teacher with an ounce of common sense wouldn't have allowed you in the classroom during an experiment gness ...

[Canary42]

I've given up watching Pointless as I'm not a film buff like question-setter Osman. Every programme almost without fail contains at least one film-related question, either as a whole, or as one of the options.

[Cloverjo]

Lol, gness. What a maths teacher! How did he stay in his job?!

[Cloverjo]

Canary, there seems to be a football question every episode, too. I know Osman is a football fan and a film buff, but I don't think he's the sole setter. There must be a committee and a checker, at least.

[jno]

there used to be a Waterloo in Hampshire. It's been changed to Waterlooville, but the second answer wasn't far wrong.

As for the date, it is falling further behind us - 50 years further than when I last studied history. Does anyone now remember the dates of the battles of Lexington or Yorktown, or even the ones that the British won in America, like Quebec? They weren't much earlier than Waterloo.

[gness]

He was a good Catholic, Clover....that seemed to be all that mattered....

Ael......I'll have you know I never caused an accident in the science labs....and the one involving the new desk, the hair lacquer and the fire in the art room wasn't entirely my fault.....and it did prove to the class that inflammable meant exactly the same as flammable.......☺

[Old_Geezer]

Didn't see the show yesterday. Coming across something and being enthused enough to go look up and memorise details, are different things. I dropped history at school as soon as I had to make a choice; after all it wasn't science. It was all memorising dates and royals and the multitude of battles so could hardly compete with the attraction of "proper" knowledge. Everyone is interested and memorises different things.

[Cloverjo]

You're right, O_G. I've tried memorising important dates and the order of Kings and queens, but they just don't stick in my head. Like you, I love science.

[ichkeria]

Maybe he did do it at school but forgot. I never remember doing it - we only did Irish history so my English history is self-taught. So what we learn at school is not necessarily relevant.

The question I like is "Who was the last foreign invader successfully to invade Britain?" many get that one wrong, as it isn't widely taught in GB I suspect

[Gromit]

There are quiz questions that I do not know, but I can have an educated guess. The surprising thing about the young chaps answer was not that he got it wrong (plenty of contestants get questions wron), it was how uneducated his guesses were.

I do not know the dates of the Battles at Lexington or Yorktown, but I know my guess will not be more than 300 years wrong.