Basic skills -- what's the point?

One of my favorite films that touches on education is The Karate Kid, the original version made in the 1980's.  It can be put in the cornball, Disney-hero category, but is understated enough in most of the scenes, and touches on what matters at so many points, that my eye-rolling loses out to the welling tears at the corners.  The scene I recommend viewing as a teaser combines the importance of simple, basic skills and preparation with the importance of "light bulbs going on" in minds to make the learning gel.

In the film, Mr. Miyagi, a neighbor very experienced in karate, teaches a younger Daniel how to defend himself better using karate, as well as plenty of life lessons.  His teaching methods tend to be zen-like, and in the scene I've selected here, Daniel is just about fed up with them.  Mr. Miyagi has assigned Daniel to wax Miyagi's car, paint his house, and sand his patio floor, over a period of days.  When Daniel sees Miyagi return from fishing while the boy was house-painting for him, he demands to know what the point of all this "unfairness" is.