Earlier this week, I read a posting on Zetta Elliot’s blog, Fledgling, about the controversy between professional and non-professional book reviewers. I had an immediate reaction to the discussion (much ado about nothing!) but, I decided to step away and give it some thought.

This morning, I’m watching the Food Network and my response begins to take form. Of course it’s days late and a few dollars short, so I decided to create a blog post of my own that might bring an audience to my thoughts.

I’m watching Bobby Flay, one of the coolest guys on TV and someone I think I’d actually enjoy meeting, and he’s grilling it up with this neighborhood cook. I remember seeing Bobby on Throwdown where he goes into the domain of other cooks and challenges them at their specialty. The thing is, Bobby is a chef while these other people are cooks. (Did you know Rachel Ray is a cook?) This seems like a subtle difference to a consumer like me who is just looking for a good recipe, but Bobby has been academically trained on the art and science of food preparation. He enters a kitchen with a different perspective from someone who has mastered their skill from hand me down memories and/or trial and error cooking lessons.

Yet, Bobby respects their abilities, cooks alongside them and enters into a dynamic, collegial exchange with them.

This reminds me of so much I’ve read this past week: professional journalists disgusted with individuals on social networking sites who have the audacity to think they’re providing news while those on Twitter and Facebook are challenging professionals to report something, anything to give validity to what they already know.

I even think about how much more dynamic the learning experience is in my classroom when students bring knowledge to the classroom, teaching the teacher if you will. In breaking down the traditional Teacher-Student Barriers and allowing information to flow in the classroom, there is an emotional connect to the content and a deeper sense of learning.

See where I’m going with this?

For whom are you writing and what do you hope to accomplish?

Chris Brogan reminds us that from this economy forward if we wish to be successful, we’ll have to look at what we do and what resources we have in a new way. This is something that those of us who teach information literacy have always known

• to be 21^st century learners, we must be able to learn, unlearn and re-learn.

I see this as a message both to professional and non-professionals in any field.

In learning from one another, we begin to develop this new, 21^st century perspective. If the non-professional is successful, one must ask why. Does that individual simply have a knack, a gift or have they identified a niche that the professionals have missed? Mitali Perkins tried to tell you this in her response to the original blog article on this topic and Bitch Magazine directly confronted the sin of omission.

I know when I’m reading a professional. I try to figure out what they’ve done, what elements are present in their review that make such a well honed presentation. I wonder how they’ve found such a wonderful book, how they uncovered such an interesting back story. I still write my little reviews and although they I will probably be embarrassed to read them years from now (because I will improve!), I will keep writing about these books because so few others do. I will keep writing because in composing my reviews, I force myself to  think more critically about what I’ve read and am better posed to discuss the book with students and teachers. I will keep writing because I am showing students that this art is accessible to them as well. And I will learn and unlearn how to do this better.

I doubt I’ll ever get the opportunity to cook with Bobby Flay, but one of these days I may have  Roger Sutton, Elizabeth Devereaux, Adriana Dominguez or some other well trained Book Reviewer comment on one of my reviews. They may even learn something from my unique style!