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Original poster

Do you know when WW2 started....if so, you know more than some of the Apprentice candidates?

57 replies

chomalungma · 31/10/2019 18:41

DS was quite shocked last night when watching it. They had to get an Alice in Wonderland book that was printed before WW2 started.

I know it was a long time ago - but it did shape the world, especially modern Europe.

Do you know when WW2 is said to have started 'officially' in Europe?

OP posts:

ALongHardWinter · 31/10/2019 19:40

Doesn't surprise me,to be honest. at LordProfFekko. World War eleven!

TricklBOO · 31/10/2019 19:41

I was taught about WW2 in the 80s - I did my O Level project on it. My grandparents were alive throughout it so they spoke about it a lot (grandad not so much).

DS has been taught about it in both primary and secondary schools.

ScreamingCosArgosHaveNoRavens · 31/10/2019 19:42

Yes, I do.

The Apprentice - It surprised me - although this might have been down to how the scene was edited - that none of the group seemed even to have a vague idea when it was. One of them asked 'was it in our parents' lifetime?' for example. How can they have missed all the media coverage of memorial events?

In fairness to all the candidates it should be noted that Lottie, on the other team, knew exactly when it was. Never thought I would be defending Lottie .

Nannewnannew · 31/10/2019 19:42

I was equally shocked when driving past a display of Remembrance poppies recently and my friend asked what they were for. When I said they are Remembrance poppies and for Armistice day, my friend asked when and what that is. My friend is not as young as the Apprentice contestants, she’s in her early 50s. How can people be so unaware of the world around them?

TSSDNCOP · 31/10/2019 19:42

Yes OP, but you need to know what to add 75 to

I love World War Eleven too.

RubbingHimSourly · 31/10/2019 19:44

We barely covered the world wars in school, our history teacher was obsessed with old farming methods and crop rotations.......but I know when our world wars started and ended. I found that clip quite disrespectful for some reason

PastTheGin · 31/10/2019 19:44

I don’t think “being smarter than an Apprentice candidate” is setting the bar very high...
I only watched part of an episode this time and had to turn over when they were inventing toys as it was so stupid and reminded me too much of pointless form time activities at secondary school.

Passthecherrycoke · 31/10/2019 19:45

I wasn’t taught about WW2- in primary (80s) we did ancient history and in secondary (90s) we did the industrial revolution. I did it to gcse and not a WW in sight

Mind you it’s going sone to expect everyone to remember the exact year even if they did learn about it in school 15 years ago

TSSDNCOP · 31/10/2019 19:46

Suralan must fear for the future of his £250k.

Soontobe60 · 31/10/2019 19:47

It’s like Love Island in reeeeeeaaaaally tight stupid suits.

🤣🤣🤣
That's why I watch it. The stupidity, ignorance and bloody obvious lack of intelligence from those purporting to be entrepreneurs amazes me!
I think the winner should be Thomas. He comes across as truly genuine, doesn't pretend to be anything other than what he is, a real salesman.

TSSDNCOP · 31/10/2019 19:49

Rubbing in our case Geography was like that. We spent actual eons on ordnance survey maps that were so old it was like handling parchment.

I’ve never got a question where Kendall Mint cake was the answer wrong though

ScreamingCosArgosHaveNoRavens · 31/10/2019 19:49

He comes across as truly genuine,

Do you think so? I think his "loveable" cockney geezer persona is put on, myself.

jmh740 · 31/10/2019 19:50

I was shocked none of them knew what a mortor board was, do none of them have a degree?

minniemoll · 31/10/2019 19:51

My neighbour has an apprentice at work (in IT) who apparently had no idea what he was looking at when he was shown a map of the world.....

Skinnychip · 31/10/2019 19:54

I cant even remember if i learnt it at school but thought it was a genetal knowledge type of thing. Especially since we have had commemorations this year. My DD(13) has been taught this at school. I was surprised about the mortar board too.
I think they must choose a selection of fairly ignorant people for better tv

x2boys · 31/10/2019 19:55

Did you do.history GCSE, in the early 90,s @RubbingHimSourly? because I did and it covered the agricultural and industrial revolution ,I know all.about four field crop rotations as a result i.don't think we covered much about the wars in History but my Grandparents were adults in the second world war , my maternal Grandparents had some evacuees my Grandad had congenital heart disease so failed the medical for the armed forces but did serve in the home guard ,my paternal.grandparents were Irish and living in Ireland during world war 2

rosegoldwatcher · 31/10/2019 20:07

I stopped watching The Apprentice in the middle of the last series. I can't abide the candidates - all of them an uncomfortable combination of arrogance and stupidity. Surely some of the thousands of applicants for this show are both likeable and talented? Are they discounted as not being good telly?
Mitchell and Webb seem to think so...
www.youtu.be/3ss-59fi4nM

Beveren · 04/11/2019 14:14

I'm amazed anyone wasn't taught this at school. My kids had it thrown at them both in primary and secondary school, and when they did GCSE history guess what was on the syllabus yet again.

Even if you weren't taught it, there's so much on TV and so many references to anniversaries etc that you actually have to try quite hard to avoid the information. Or do they simply pay no attention?

Passthecherrycoke · 04/11/2019 14:17

It’s not that, we’re not saying people don't know anything about WW2, it’s about retaining exact and fairly unimportant information like the year the war started.

BarbaraofSeville · 04/11/2019 14:32

DP and I use Pointless as a barometer to the levels of general knowledge by members of the public, or lack of it, as is usually the case.

It sounds like there must have been some overlap between that set of Apprentice candidates and those from one episode of Pointless from the last few days where:

2 people couldn't identify a lion in a clear photograph of a lion
30-40 people did not know that the Palace of Versailles was in France, Cologne was in Germany and the Yosemite National Park was in the USA.

As for allegedly educated people taking part in what is probably the country's highest profile job interview not knowing when WW2 started, worlds fail me.

TeenPlusTwenties · 04/11/2019 15:14

DD's covered WWII in y6 Primary and again in y9.
Absolutely shocked the candidates on one team didn't know.

OTOH, I didn't know what a 'rigger jigger' was (though did guess it was to do with rowing), nor a 'quant'. My 89yo DF knew both of those.

mytinyfiredancers · 04/11/2019 15:21

Yes I do know, and I'm 35 so a similar age roughly to some of the contestants. It was taught at GCSE level when I sat mine in 2000.

Aside from that, even if you didn't learn at school it's printed on the papers every year on commemorative dates like the anniversary of D-Day etc.

My Grandparents were all alive during the war and one of my Grandfathers fought.

I think it's utterly shameful that there are adults who don't know about this devastating world event just a couple of generations on! It is a key part of modern history and shaped the country that we are right now. There are people around today that don't know what Auschwitz is.

Pilipilihoho · 04/11/2019 15:30

I don't think it matters whether they learn about it at school or not - as a person living in the UK, it's really willfully ignorant not to know: it's on every war memorial, in every town (and many, many villages), it's a huge part of modern Britain fgs. I suspect what it indicates is someone who barely engages with current affairs, doesn't ever crack a book (except possibly Harry Potter) and has no interest in the wider world. I think it's quite a shocking level of ignorance, but perhaps I live a sheltered life!

TheSilveryPussycat · 04/11/2019 15:38

Surely the reason it's called a mortar board is because it looks like a (plaster's) mortar board? So Thomas was not so wrong after all.

DGRossetti · 04/11/2019 17:38

I would be less shocked at anyone not knowing than I would be someone who had no idea how to find out.

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