Practical solutions to improve the education system to benefit students and prepare them for the real world is a pressing issue that, for many, only sounds good on paper. Kelly Mitchell’s Clap If You Can Hear Me: The Secret Attention Deficits of Education That Prevent Generational Wealth & Prosperity In America is a carefully researched guidebook that analyzes the critical deficits of the Pre-K through the higher education blueprint. At the same time, it provides practical solutions by addressing the critical subjects that students need to learn, the role of parents, and that peculiar position of state and local responsibility. Mitchell traces the roots of the problem from family roles to financing education and proves that education reform is a long-delayed imperative plagued by wrong expectations that lead to abysmal results.

Many of the skills that we learn in schools like writing, speaking, and critical thinking are useful skills for the real world. Sadly, not everything that we are taught prepares us to face the challenges of an ever-competitive globalized world. What makes Clap If You Can Hear Me thought-provoking at best is how it proves that an enterprise works more effectively when those responsible embrace a strong sense of accountability to produce results. Focusing on student performance, research-based programs, increased flexibility, and reduced bureaucracy are great steps to encompass greater latitude in education reform. Mitchell, however, makes it clear that this takes collective responsibility. It is going to be a long haul, but we can all help guide our children to overcome the many obstacles that go with the price of education.

Clap If You Can Hear Me: The Secret Attention Deficits of Education That Prevent Generational Wealth & Prosperity In America by Kelly Mitchell is an assertive non-fiction guide that lays out how America can get back into the generational wealth game--with education. The title comes from a teacher prompt, where students are to clap one time as a single unit if they hear and understand the point the teacher is trying to make. It boils down to paying attention, and that's the focus of this book meant for students, teachers, and the reading audience in general. Improving education, individual lives, and the world means paying attention.

Mitchell has a straightforward, no-fluff approach to problem-solving, and it comes down to offering commonsense answers to issues in the education system. Part of this is empowering students and parents with a focus on health, economics, civic duty, mental health, responsibility, and other broad themes. Readers may be unaware of the problems that exist in PreK through high school platforms, but the author defines and explains them. You may know there is a problem, but just don't have all the information to sort it out. This is where Mitchell comes in. She explains in ways that enlighten and inform, but also give solutions. But in addition to just fixing the problems at school, this book can help young people get ready for life itself, not just higher education. Each chapter has something special, and takeaways you can use day to day. School should be about preparing students for life and career, and this book outlines the plan chapter by chapter. The lessons learned here can apply to almost any job or life situation.

I like how the author cuts through the fog and gets to the heart of an issue, which I think readers--especially parents--will appreciate. Besides the personal level, this book branches out into generational and national prosperity, global competition and success, and the reduction of debt (government, student, and personal) in the process. Clap If You Can Hear Me by Kelly Mitchell can help put students, parents, and the nation back in the driver's seat. A must-read for those looking for a positive change in education and life itself.

Clap If You Can Hear Me: The Secret Attention Deficits of Education That Prevent Generational Wealth & Prosperity in America by Kelly Mitchell is a nonfiction book on education, and the author exposes the loopholes and deficits in contemporary educational systems from the early stages to higher levels. Most people start life after graduation and quickly discover that they are ill-prepared, something the author calls a “rude awakening” as they begin to navigate life. Students lack the knowledge to pay their taxes, create a budget, cook meals, do car maintenance, and a lot more. It is not surprising that after spending so many years getting educated, most people come out of college lacking the knowledge required to face life and are steeped in debt.

In this book, the author defines the role the family plays in education, discusses home management and personal growth, explores themes like the lackluster primary education versus the globally elite colleges, communication arts, hands-on learning experiences, and entrepreneurship, what should make higher education different, and a lot more. Clap If You Can Hear Me is a comprehensive guide to education that makes a huge difference in the lives of students when it comes to facing life’s challenges and succeeding in business. This is a revolutionary book that anyone interested in education, from students and educators to policymakers, should read. It provides practical insights on fixing the broken educational system, proposes a winning formula for learning that wins, and captures the most important elements that should be put in place for the kind of education that sets students up for success. Kelly Mitchell writes with confidence and her authoritative voice, coupled with her street smarts, will grab the reader instantly. The book is informative, motivating, and inspiring.

Clap If You Can Hear Me: The Secret Attention Deficits of Education That Prevent Generational Wealth & Prosperity in America by Kelly Mitchell is an engaging and thought-provoking book. It gives good insights and helpful hints to parents to guide their children through the many obstacles that arise with paying for education. This is a constantly evolving world and the author shares tools and techniques that will be useful to experts, parents, teachers, employers, and communities to make changes and hold thoughtful conversations in PTAs, teachers' meetings, and educational forums. The book also discusses the importance of teaching life skills to children to enhance their schooling and give them an edge when they enter the professional world.

Kelly Mitchell does an excellent job of tackling the topic expansively and methodically, and the concept of learning is made tangible to readers. There is much information in this book that will help both parents and students improve their educational skills. The importance of education is also stressed, along with what should be taught in middle school and high school when it comes to finances. Reading Clap If You Can Hear Me is also the best way to prepare students for school and life thereafter. The list of Age-Appropriate chores for children is also quite useful to parents when deciding on the household tasks to give their kids and how mastering house-service learning will slowly help them to branch out to service-learning in the community.

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Clap If You Can Hear Me: The Secret Attention Deficits of Education That Prevent Generational Wealth & Prosperity In America is a manual that helps to assist youth to have a balanced view of education and to parse the relevant from the useless. Quite the wordsmith, Kelly Mitchell is on par with some of the most eloquent speakers, writers and thinkers of our time. One big focus in the book is on teaching useful life-skills and practical lessons, like how to cook a meal or prepare an effective resume. We’re at a time in history where we know technological advancement will have a cost, but as of yet, nobody knows exactly what the charge is going to be. This down-to-earth guide is a valuable resource to arm young adults for whatever battles may come.

You may think you’ve read a book like this before, but this fresh take on the education system is filled with surprises! The book is like a road trip that you expected to last a few days, but many scenic and interesting detours later, and you’re halfway across the country. The chapters build upon a solid foundation of research. Mitchell is clever and pithy, and this comes through as each argument is delivered. Carefully placed charts and deliberate photographs really drive home the point that our education system is in trouble. And although some of the most important points struggle to stand out in a book filled with impassioned pleas and justified indignations, the common sense approach to education is a must read for parents and young adults. Thought-provoking and challenging, this hearty book provides needed insights in an overloaded ‘screenager culture’.

Clap If You Can Hear Me by Kelly Mitchell is a social commentary on the shortcomings of the American education system, its correlated problems, and feasible suggestions as well as practical steps on how to fix these issues. The problem starts from the foundational aspect of parenting. It extends to formal education in elementary and high school. Finally, it ends at the level of higher education, where students are ill-equipped, and colleges' structure and content are outdated. However, Kelly Mitchell does not just emphasize the problem. She gives logical and practical solutions, providing online resources to help parents, educators, and students take charge of their lives for a prosperous America.

Kelly Mitchell is forward-thinking in her approach to the problems facing the American education system. Her arguments are backed up with data and real-life examples that speak of her passion for change. Her personal experiences are also part of the examples used to drive home her point. Problems, causes, and solutions are tabled out clearly and concisely such that readers come away with the sense of being enriched and challenged. The knowledge in this book is broad, and I can guarantee that readers will come away with some new information and zeal to contribute their quota to the advancement of formal learning.

Apart from the clear and compelling nature of this book, there are many delightful resources with enabled links that readers can access at just the click of a button. There are links to government and private organizations' websites, websites to access data, and educational resources. There's a reference list at the end of the book, which once again attests to the volume of research the author has done to ensure that she is on the right track. The use of pictures to illustrate points is a testament to the validity of issues raised. I will summarize this book as helpful, insightful, and a delight to read. However, I have to mention that the topics therein are not to be taken lightly. If not dealt with urgently, the issues pointed out might lead to a total collapse of the whole system and not only the education system. Kelly Mitchell has provided the knowledge and resources; the onus is on us to act and do so as quickly as possible if the American dream is to be kept alive.

Apart from the plenty of errors in the book, the formatting was of great concern to me. It would be nice to properly separate chapters, probably with a blank page, and then have some pictures adjusted. However, I suspect that the arrangement is because it is an ebook; there is no title page, table of content, etc.

I will recommend this book to parents, educators, students, politicians, and those with a vested interest in education. Apart from dealing with issues in the education system, this book also provides practical guidance and advice on improving students' and citizens' quality of life. I would have given this book a 4-star rating, but the errors therein take off a point. So I'm rating this book a 3 out of 4. This book is a must-read for anyone involved in the decision-making process of the education system. It might help readers avoid some mistakes as they navigate the world and thus provide an opportunity for prosperity and the creation of generational wealth.

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Clap If You Can Hear Me by Kelly Mitchell should be required reading for every person with a child in public school, for every person who was educated in public schools, for every person who offers an opinion on what should be done with our public schools, for every politician who offers criticisms of public education or solutions to educational challenges, and for every person who has the right to vote in the country. The author has drilled down beneath the educational policy discourse to offer a hard-hitting, fact-rich examination of what has happened and what is happening in and to American education system.

This book presents a refreshing change–lengthy, thought-out discussions on many of the issues of public education. Each issue is discussed and author suggests solutions on the issues with references. This is a great primer for people new to the education scene – new parents, new politicians, new school officials. And it’s a great reminder of the impediments for change. Hopefully whole communities can read the book and once they see the common ground they find ways to improve the situation for millions of students nationwide.



This book is a great first step for people who have concerns about certain aspects of the K-12 school realm, who question the necessities of certain “traditions”- testing, loads of homework, etc.- or have a struggling child. It doesn’t have all of the answers, but it provides much to think about and gives some great starting tactics for parents struggling with how to address an overpowering and intimidating administrative school system. We are reminded in the book that American schooling was never designed to do what we are asking it to do today. While this book is specifically about education reform, anyone involved in the reform of anything in business or society today would be well served to read this book.

Kelly Mitchell suggests that schools in any successful national system need to have content-based standards for each grade level. By “content-based,” she means that a standard would list a specific set of knowledge that each child would acquire in each grade. This seems to make an immense amount of sense to me. It is definitely not trying to sell home-schooling as the be-all and end-all solution, but rather provides parents with a starting point to advocate for their child within the system.



Skills are domain-specific: you cannot transfer them from one type of task or subject matter to another. Teaching general reading strategies like ‘main-idea finding’ or ‘inferencing’ is ineffective after the first handful of lessons. Teaching communicative or critical thinking skills and other so-called twenty-first century skills is not possible separate from extensive knowledge-building on each topic. The point isn’t that kids should leave school all with the same knowledge, with school being a kind of cookie cutting service. It also isn’t to provide students with the skills necessary to get jobs, as such. The problem here is that the jobs are changing so fast that imparting ‘skills’ is just about the best means to ensure kids won’t get jobs in the future. The role of education is rather to help students become life long learners who can, in the words of Freire, read the word and read the world. It is for kids to leave school with the skills to critically understand the world they live in.

Clap If You Can Hear Me by Kelly Mitchell is a highly valuable book with practical solutions for navigating our broken school system. This is a very practical book, that offers solutions and not just a dire forecast of our school system. The main focus of the book is being able to flex education to meet the needs of our children and help them become life-long learners who enjoy education. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants practical solutions.

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