Collateral Benefit

Is this a phrase someone else has already used? Collateral Benefit? If not I get "dibbs" on it.

I have cited this study before. Cyndy passed to me a study about to classes in the government system. Both first grade classes. The one classe to an hour and held a session on learning how to read. The other class to the same hour and instead of learning how to read, they did physical science projects. At the end of three years, so after the third grade, both groups were tested. Guess which group could read best? You guessed it. The group doing the physical sciences had the best skills in reading. The group that took the reading class didn't fair as well.

So the strong reader class, attacked the physical sciences, and as a side benefit, ie collateral benefit, reading actually progressed faster than the group focussing on the reading.

This should come as no surprise. A kid doing baseball cards, has a passion for it, and parents who don't stand in the way. The collateral benefit? History, Geography, Math, spelling, story writing, chart making, compare and contrast skills, organization, sorting, storage, business (trading), Investment and who knows what else? The list goes on.

Our Ben bought a rebuilt a Quad. The collateral benefit? Engineering, Engine mechanics, metal work, welding, research, business ( he sold it for a $400 profit), confidence with adults improved, not to mention personal self confidence as he was the 1 child out of 11 in the family whose speciality was quads. The one child who rebuilt one and sold one.

Parents so concerned that reading is coming slow, or math or anything else, might consider what happens when you let your children follow their positive passions and take them deep. You can trust collateral benefits will be there.