Tofu Is Not Cheese: Rethinking Education Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the closure of millions of schools around the world. As a result, teachers and education leaders must find new ways to provide education to over one billion students. This is a crisis, but within which is the opportunity to rethink education. In this article, I discuss productive ways to take advantage of the opportunity brought about by the disastrous crisis. Tofu is not cheese. We should not expect it to smell or taste like cheese nor should we need to pretend it is or make it taste and smell like cheese. The message this commentary is trying to convey is that we should accept the fact that schools are closed and we do not need to pretend we can make online education the same as face-to-face (f2f) schools. Instead, we should make the best out of the new situation. Online education cannot replace all functions schools play in our society, but it can do a lot more than being a lesser version of f2f schooling.