Comment by accidentallfact

I'll bite: is education not about starting with theoretical summary of the knowledge in the domain, and then applying it in practice and really feeling it work, be challenging, or not work?

The best educators I had had exactly that approach: you sometimes start with theory, but other times with challenges which make you feel the difficulty, and understand the value of the theory you are co-developing with the educator (they just have the benefit of knowing exactly where we'll end up, but when time allows, they do let you take a wrong turn too). Even if you start with theory, diving into a challenge where you are allowed not to apply the learnings should quickly tell you why the theoretical side makes sense.

As with everything in life, great educators are few but once you have them, you can apply the same approach yourself even if the educator is unable to steer you the right way.

If you never received this type of education, then what you received could arguably be called a waste of time.