One of my favorite venues to meet with emerging leaders and discuss engaging topics over the years has been coffee houses at Nanjing University.  Nanjing University is a top university in China and the students are some of the brightest and most ambitious I have met.

Apparently, after Steve Jobs died, the Chinese government decided to allocate millions of Yuan and research to “create” 1000 Steve Jobs (these are the facts as I remember them). The question the Nanjing University Students wanted to discuss with our U.S. professional team was, “can this be done? Can you ‘create’ 1000 Steve Jobs?”  What a great question, huh?

One of my U.S partners stated, “Yeah, encourage everyone to quit college, like Jobs did.”  Probably not good advice, huh?

I really agree with Bloom’s Taxonomy concerning “higher order thinking skills.” Unfortunately, because we are trying to identify the brightest among many, we turn to standardized testing.  Standardized testing is often full of questions that are the lowest level of thinking skills: remembering.  So, we test students on the lowest order thinking skills because we need to identify the “brightest” as easily as possible among thousands of students.  Steve Jobs would not have been one of those who tested high on standardized tests, I am quite confident.  But, certainly, he would have ranked high on Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy concerning the highest order thinking skill: creating. 

Unfortunately, this emphasis on testing students over lower order thinking skills like remembering only perpetuates itself. Because, once you know that is how you will be evaluated for top universities or even jobs, you will ONLY focus on that kind of learning.  You will study what you know you will be evaluated upon.   In most cases, this is remembering and recalling: the lowest order.

If you are an educator, seek to build higher order thinking skills into your teaching curriculum.  Develop lesson plan objectives that ask for analysis, not just identification.  Set objectives that involve comparing, evaluating and synthesizing information, rather than just recalling and restating things as they have been given.  If we can create environments where analysis, synthesis, and creativity are celebrated, we will create environments where geniuses like Steve Jobs will have the freedom, inspiration and encouragement to dream and create.