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WEEKS of November 20 & 27, 2006
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	Above, from top: Ellen Kahan enjoying a typical Japanese lunch in Tokyo; a temple in the center of Tokyo; entrance to a Shinto shrine

Journey to Japan for Brooklyn Friends School Teacher

by Joan Martin

Ellen Kahan, ceramics teacher at Brooklyn Friends School, spent three weeks in Japan this summer with a group of 200 teachers in the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund program. Ellen was selected from an applicant pool of 3,600 educators from 50 states to take part in the program, which is fully funded by the Government of Japan to increase understanding between the people of Japan and the United States. Participants learn about Japanese culture and education, visit schools, stay with a Japanese family, and return to implement a self-designed plan to share their knowledge and experience with their students, colleagues, and community.

A professional ceramicist as well as a teacher, Ellen traveled to the north of Japan as well as Tokyo. There were lectures on all aspects of Japanese culture, education, history, and politics. She was even able to spend an entire day visiting four different potters in a town in Aizuwatamatsu, 200 miles north of Tokyo. "I learned a new technique of wheelthrowing that I am teaching to my classes this semester," said Ellen. "I also made a video of my experience, and all my classes have seen it." The video has become an additional teaching tool of inspiration and motivation for her students, she said.

Ceramics is viewed as one of the highest art forms in Japan and Ellen has been strongly influenced by Japanese and Korean ceramics. “I am very proud that I was selected for this prestigious award, along with two other teachers from Brooklyn Friends who have gone in previous years, Seth Flicker, 4th grade teacher, and Mark Buenzle, upper school art teacher,” she said.

Brooklyn Friends School has a fully-equipped ceramics studio with a kiln and 10 potters wheels, and Ellen has been teaching at the school for 15 years. Recently she and religion teacher Monica Lisa Mills accompanied 18 ninth through twelfth grade students to the Urasenke Center in Manhattan for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony with the Zen master, Mr. Yamada. She also worked this fall with Brooklyn Friends students to create 200 glazed ceramics bowls, which will be sold at the school’s Crafts Fair on Dec. 9 to benefit the CHIPS soup kitchen in Park Slope.

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