Claude's default teaching shape has no return: the 5-node loop that fixes it

Ask Claude to teach you a non-trivial concept and watch the shape of the reply. It almost always descends: definition, syntax, an example, maybe a second example, a closing sentence that is either a summary or a handoff. The descent is fine. The problem is there is no return. The opening hook — the analogy or scenario the reader would have used to latch onto the concept — is never revisited. Syntax gets retained. Mechanism does not. A week later the reader can name the API but cannot explain why