The special learning needs of students in grades 4-5 who are children of poverty have been misunderstood and therefore unaddressed. As a result, many students born into poverty start down a slippery slope of steady academic decline in grades 4 and 5. But specialized, counter-intuitive approaches. Specifically, accelerating the learning of these students after the third grade requires reducing supplemental instruction in reading and math and using that time to develop a sense of understanding via intensive Socratic interaction and periodically linking the teaching of existing content objectives to how students' perceive the world and their role in it.