Gonzo or Reflective?

I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say. Flannery O’Connor

In a recent comment to this blog, Dennis Conner wrote: “Doug, kudos on the Blue Skunk. I enjoy reading pages with voice and personality…and your pages do all that and more. Is Gonzo Librarianship a genre? A quick glance at your blogroll seems to say yes.”

Thanks, Dennis. I think.

To tell the truth, I had go look up what “gonzo” actually meant. My main reference is the strange blue bird with the crooked beak on the Muppet Show. And of course, Hunter S. Thompson’s writing of which I’ve read little.

So a quick search found a definition in that most suspect of all sources, Wikipedia: Gonzo is a style of reportage, film making, or any form of multimedia production in which the reporter, filmmaker or creator is intrinsically enmeshed with the subject action (rather than being a passive observer). (September 20, 2005)

Given writer Thompson’s flamboyant lifestyle, I find the label uncomfortable as a shy and retiring Minnesotan. I’m not saying we in the north don’t have Thompson’s urges and tastes, it’s just that we are less forthcoming about them and feel guilty, rather than proud, when made public.

I’d hope that “reflective practitioner” is a better term for my writing perspective. While I deeply admire and even envy the theorists and visionaries in the fields of both librarianship and technology, I also am rather proud that I am working “where the rubber meets the road” – where theory actually gets put into practice as the media and technology director for a pretty average school district.

Writing about one’s experiences is one of the best means of active reflection (is that an oxymoron?) I often think of O’Conner’s quote that begins this entry. The physical act of writing forces one to clarify, summarize, prioritize and defend those thoughts that fly about the brain like wild birds in an aviary.

One area where we as practitioners need to be more reflective is in our collaborative efforts. My article Proactivity and Reflection: Tools to Improve Collaborative Experiences, Minnesota Media, 2004 explores this idea and offers an activity that may facilitate reflection.

Academic research articles frustrate me. I suppose they are a necessary evil. But if the researcher would simply add a short statement at the end of any study called “Applications for Practice,” the lives of all of us working with real kids and teachers would be made much simpler. Start the reflection for us.

I encourage everyone on a daily basis to jot down some thoughts about how the day went and why. Hey, share your thoughts with others as well through your own blog or articles. I’m sure I’d enjoy reading them and the more “gonzo” the better!

What things do you do that make you more reflective?