In Chapter 8, Duckworth discusses structures, which are sets of relationships we develop in order to interpret the world around us. The more complex the development of the structure is, the more ways there are to assimilate experiences of the world. Even we have developed these structures, they sometime fail to assimilate things. What’s interesting is that the failure of assimilation that we see in very small children can even happen to fully grown adults, albeit in different ways.
That evokes a question: what is it that causes our attempted assimilation to fail? In infants, it could be something very specific and mundane, such as the lack of the ability to relate its field of view to its range of motion. When talking about fully grown adults, I think the problem is not as specific. Is merely a lack of understanding on a subject enough to prevent assimilation? I think this is perhaps the case. Interpreting calculus, for instance, requires having a developed structure of the rules of algebra. Without that understanding of algebraic principles, things like rates of change would be incredibly difficult to understand and assimilate. What are other ways in which assimilation can be hindered? I think it’s an interesting question to ask.