This morning Apple announced the death of its visionary leader, Steve Jobs. At the young age of 56, he had already established himself as one of the greatest innovators of all time. Virtually all the important advancements in personal technology over the past ten-plus years were the result of Jobs: the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iTunes store, the iPad.
Our students certainly know the work of Jobs. The iPod’s famous click wheel is as familiar to them as a keyboard and the iPad’s touch screen will undoubtedly be their workspace for years to come. They are the direct beneficiaries of a mind that never stopped asking, “What next?”
And so it’s worth viewing Jobs as not simply a great tech mind, but as a role model for the IB, a role model for the type of person we want our students to become. Mr. Tomalin showed a video about the Learner Profile at Curriculum Evening. How many of those traits did Jobs consistently demonstrate?
Probably better to ask which ones he didn’t–it would be a shorter list. As a thinker, inquirer, communicator, and risk-taker, Jobs never chose to follow the crowd but instead found his own path. I invite you to take 15 minutes to watch his commencement address at Standford University from 2005. Much of what made Jobs who he was can be heard in that speech.
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