One of the most important issues relating to the American education system is the high number of school children who are living in poverty. Socioeconomic Status is often measured through a number of factors; income, education, occupation, etc. Often it is conceptualized by an individual’s social standing, in America it’s primarily divided into three echelons. We have the upper class, the middle class, the lower class, and (I toss in for good measure) the poor class. Modern economic distresses are serving to all together erase these groups and great two large divides; the rich and the poor. In order to create advocacy for the people who are negatively affected by the issue of poverty, we have to understand the behavioral and social science that creates these differences and widens the gaps, of greater importance is to understand the mental afflictions that the children of the poor are unknowingly victims to. A child born and raised in low SES is likely to grow up to become an adult of low SES. It is also likely that the child, who in turn will turn into an adult, is likely to produce children who will also become part of this vicious cycle of poverty. Research studies show that children born and raised in poverty are more likely to struggle academically. Part of these struggles will cause them to have limited vocabulary, further hindering their full capacity of understandings in education and society, and even simple determinations of wrong from right. According to the book by Eric Jensen, titled “Teaching with Poverty in Mind”, children living in poverty will have an overall adverse effect on population as whole, because they (meaning the poor) will suffer from four primary risks. (Pg. 7, Jensen). Those risks being: 1 Emotional and social challenges, 2 Acute and chronic stressors 3 Cognitive lags 4 Health and safety issues. In addition to these risk factors, 45% of families living in poverty are more likely to suffer from homelessness, divorce, drug-abuse, trouble with law enforcement, imprisonment, chemical abuse, and sickness (Pg. 7, Jensen). These factors are very real, extremely tangible and not uncommon in the communities set in urban areas, and other areas of low SES. As educators, it’s important that we understand the issue of poverty, and acknowledge that it is akin to an illness. In order to cure the disease we have to understand the root of the problem, and furthermore-address not only the disease, but also the variables that feed into the problem. If we are going to place ourselves in a position as an educator we have to be compassionate and sensitive to the afflictions and challenges that our students face. The book by Jensen adequately describes the cycle by saying “the aggregate of risk factors makes everyday a living struggle; they are multifaceted and interwoven, building on and playing off one another with a devastatingly synergistic effect” (Pg. 8, Jensen). The current financial crisis has increased the gap between the rich and the poor, we have in the last decade experienced high joblessness and slow income growth. A reputable online news site- www.hufffingtonpost.com, detailed the stark reality in an article titled “One in Four Children Living in Poverty”: The Census Bureau announced last week that 46.2 million Americans were in poverty in 2010, the most since the agency started tracking poverty in the 1950s. As American parents struggle to land jobs amid a 9.1 percent unemployment rate, the jobs crisis has had an outsized effect on their children, according to the Economic Policy Institute. More than 18 percent of American children had at least one unemployed or underemployed parent, the organization found, compared with 9.1 percent in 2007, before the start of the recession. Child poverty has been growing across the country over the last decade, the Annie E. Casey Foundation reported last month. Child poverty rate jumped in 38 states during the last 10 years, and about 43 percent of children live economically unstable households, according to the organization’s findings” The data listed above is often either overlooked, or misunderstood in the arena of education. While, we may recognize the data, understand that poverty is a problem, so