The introductory problem in Ready Math was often asking acquisition-stage learners to perform at the adaptation stage. Students who hadn’t yet been shown how to do something were being asked to think flexibly about it—to figure it out before enough understanding existed to build from. The cognitive demand arrived before the foundation existed to support it. What looked like productive struggle was often just confusion. And for the students who could least afford it, that confusion was using up the very working memory they needed to learn.