Defining basic data structures is a pain. See the example on the Pyret homepage.
I am already seeing a trend in Python tutorials where they just stay away from complex data, and stick to what is easy to encode in the data structures that Python does provide (lists, dictionaries, arrays).
We've seen this movie before: it's what happened when languages like Fortran, Pascal, and C dominated programming education, and the fact that they made some data (particularly of the linear kind) really easy and others a nuisance meant that curricula diverted towards the path of least resistance.
It's harder now to spot the pattern because it's better hidden. But it's still there.