No, I did not pick up this word somewhere in a study or article, but my wife said it yesterday during the report on the trip of our secretary of education to London. What my wife meant by ‘trophy knowledge’ is knowledge with which you can proudly show that children know this.

Along the same lines, trophy skills also have existed in the past, where parents proudly showed how fluently their children could play a particular instrument. E.g. tiger mothers want their children to be able to play at least the violin or piano.

Please note: I do not want to dismiss this knowledge—nor my wife. As a musician, I would only find it bad if no one learned to play an instrument anymore. But I think it is a beautiful word that hasn’t existed yet. Correct me if I’m wrong.