Bloom's and Higher Level Thinking

As I’m thinking about all the talk we are doing in our office and in the province on the new curriculum and assessment, I hear different viewpoints expressed the perspectives of curriculum as product, process, and praxis. Those viewpoints often are indicators about what teachers expect from a curriculum document and how they will implement it in their classrooms. It’s forcing me to try to be as honest and objective as I can about how my own beliefs and personality are influencing my own practice. One of those beliefs is the importance and power of higher level thinking.
I’ve been working for several years on comprehension and have often run into the statement that younger students don’t’ have the capacity to think deeply. My personal experience, both as a primary teacher and a mother tells me otherwise. I've been musing about what theorists have to say on the issue.
The standard for higher level thinking, Bloom’s taxonomy, is experiencing a rebirth. It has been revised. Bloom's Revised Taxonomy I am also hearing references to it at workshops, in new programs, and in discussion with other educators. The best way I came to understand higher level thinking in relation to age capacity was through developing a model for levels of comprehension based on a discussion with Bill Prentice (ELA Consultant, Sasatchewan Minsitry of education) on Bloom's Taxonomy a few years ago. Essentially, there are two components to moving through Bloom's levels. The first is the level of complexity, that is the cognitive task becomes more complex, in essence moving up through the 6 levels from Remembering to Creating each cognitive process becomes more complex. However, within each level of complexity, there is a level of difficulty. A simple task for remembering would be: Name the capital of the province you live in. A difficult task for remembering might be: Name the capital cities of all the rpovinces of Canada. That understanding has helped inform my belief that young child are capable of complex thought.