The Future Is in the Margins: the Role of Technology and Disability in Educational Reform

In a remarkable work of social history called More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open Hearth to the Microwave, Ruth Cowan examines the effects of new technologies in the kitchen. Her main conclusion: new technologies like stoves (which were invented in the 18 century and replaced traditional cooking on the open hearth) did not generally make less work for mother. But stoves did transform our culture’s concept of what constituted a meal, what was meant by cooking, and even who and what a kitchen was for. Most important, the new technologies of the kitchen democratized cuisine—bringing meals that were more nutritious, more differentiated (multiple dishes, multiple courses), and more attractive to a wide range of households where such meals had been previously unavailable.