This draft demonstrates the lack of organization and development in the first stages of the writing process. After receiving feedback from the professor I was able to understand that my introduction is not unfolding a problem but rather jumping into it.  I also realized during this process that my ideas were not well thought out. I have highlighted the beginning of my introduction for the reader to notice the change as my drafts develop. During this draft, I was simply discussing how it is a problem and not why it is a problem. This was in a sense a "light bulb" moment for me because before this moment I was not sure where I was going with this paper besides repeating the same 3 statistics that enforced child poverty was a problem. This then initiated the depth of my research process.

An astounding 46.7 million people are living in poverty as of 2014. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, this number has remained stagnant for the past four years, meaning there has been no change in the level of poverty. There has been no change in the lives of more than 16 million children that are living in poverty today. Of all age groups, children under 18 have the highest rate of  poverty. Innocent children are suffering the most from this epidemic. Poverty is not only affecting a child’s current living situations but their future as well. Several studies have shown the relationship between living in poverty and demonstrating low academic performance in school. “Children living in poverty, disproportionately children of color, tend to be concentrated in schools with inadequate resources and poorly skilled teachers” (Murane). In his article of “Improving the Education of children living in poverty”, Murane discusses that because these children are living in poverty, they are immediately at a disadvantage in receiving a proper education. Their environment, their home relationships, and personality development are all factors of poverty that impact their achievement in school.

Furthermore, In 1964, a shocking 22% of America’s population was living in poverty. These desperate times called for desperate measures when President Lyndon B. Johnson declared the “War on Poverty”. From the help of several programs, the poverty drastically decreased from 22.1% to 12.16% from 1960 to 1970. This decrease was only momentary as it soon began to rise steadily  in 1970 (Crooks 2). Today, the poverty rate is at an appalling 15.9%. The increase in poverty has targeted children with the rate of children living in poverty, rising from 15.1% in 1970, to a horrifying 22.1% today. Crooks believes that this drastically rising rate is a direct consequence of the declining economic status of young families resulting from unemployment, low paying jobs, and jobs without benefits and health insurance” (Crooks 2). Regardless the reason these children are living impoverished lives, they are not getting the equal chance to succeed in school because of their living situations.

Poverty comes with many detriments to a child’s academic success, beginning with the poor health and nutrition that is inevitably partnered with poverty. Research for the link between malnutrition and mental performance did not peak interest until the late 1960’s. (Brown). This growing concern lead to the development of programs like school meals, food stamps, head start, and special supplemental programs for women. These programs helped relieve the growing  malnutrition in the United States. However, these painstaking problems are beginning to rise again in two forms. Undernutritonment and overnutritonment are the common health concerns rising in impoverished children. Both provide different setbacks in a child’s life. undernutrition leads to the deprivation in the functionality of a child’s cognition and behavior. While overnutrition pairs with a burden of health issues like diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

The apparent health consequences that come with living in poverty causes a deficiency in a child’s learning. According to an article from Eric Jensen,  the attention, learning, reasoning and memory in children that are not given the proper nutrition are affected negatively. He reinforces this idea with the scientific evidence that “poor nutrition and breakfast affects gray matter mass in children’s brains” (Jensesn 2). Grey matter serves to process information in the brain.