The Trivial Pursuit of the Origin of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader

Oh I would NOT want to play this game with a Fifth Grader. Especially not a Smart 5th Grader. Smarts tend to be viciously competitive. Unless they’re not good at something or it’s not in their arcane set of knowledge skills. Smart Structures are probably the most competitive types. Then comes Classics, yeah even the Classic Freedoms, and then probably Funs. Then Organics. And as sweet as we might appear on the outside, we are always happy to win. Who isn’t really? Please realize that because I mostly make decisions based on my own random set of values, my rating of the competitiveness of types is completely based on my own family dynamic and probably hasn’t anything to do with reality…

That said, while we were blessed with parents who didn’t push us crazy hard into competitive land — our dad — who is sweet and kind and loveable with his grandchildren — has no idea why in a kick ball game you might go easy on the four year old and maybe let her get to first base even though you could tag her out in two seconds? I mean, hello?

I think about my dad because as a Smart Structure he was pleased to learn that he was pretty good at the Trivial Pursuit questions and so while he would start the game reading in a corner, he would start answering questions randomly, helping out whatever team was posed with that question. Eventually we got him to play the game with us, just as long as he could read when it wasn’t his turn. He was like a secret asset. And he tended to participate when it wasn’t his turn to say things like, “You don’t know that? Seriously? What’s wrong with you?”

Very frustrating. So I suck at Trivial Pursuit, but will play it if everyone else wants to. I am keenly aware that I am not smarter than a Third Grader, let alone a Fifth Grader, so I am no asset in any such game, but it is fun to play if you’re on a winning team. So take it out of the closet, or better yet, get one of those easier versions like Baby Boomers, or maybe there is one for Generation X and I’d rock it. Actually there are tons of new versions and there’s even an app!