The Right Time to Generalize Schools tend to present generalizations before specifics. But a generalization is really only valuable if you make it yourself. The reason for this is simple enough. The generalizations we remember are those we make ourselves.
Generalizations come from cases, lots of cases.
When we're faced with lots of cases, we are forced to make generalizations as a way of tying together what we know in a useful form. When we make such generalizations, we can be sure to remember them because we obviously needed them in the first place. Generalization and understanding are intimately connected. Generalizations that are simply told to us have no place to sit in memory, no cases they tie together, are quickly forgotten from lack of use.