[_jal]

Absolutely. I tend to be mystified and lost without some way to place what I'm doing in some larger context, even if that context is super-vague or wrong in technical ways.

Had several teachers who utterly refused to provide that, repeating "it'll all make sense eventually." Well, it did, after I got better teachers.

[scop]

That's a great observation about teachers. I was fully convinced in late middle school that I was an idiot who had no hope to achieve good grades or a grasp of subjects. Then suddenly I found myself getting As in high school without a real change in effort/routines. I attribute that in large part to learning the "why" behind various subjects via new teachers.