Queens Cool School Is A U.N. At Peace City’s First Lady Presents Award To P.S. 164

P.S. 164 always knew they were cool, but this week the First Lady of the City of New York confirmed it.
Donna Hanover presented her Cool School award to the elementary school at 77 Ave. & 137 St. on May 10. The honor, which includes a $2,500 grant of privately-raised monies, will allow the school to buy a projector for their auditorium which they have needed for three or four years.
A magnet school for the Arts, Principal Barbara E. Brown explained that in the ten years she has been at the school, they have developed a curriculum to promote learning — especially English — through the language of the Arts.
There is a "mini-United Nations" at P.S. 164, Brown said, with students speaking countless different native languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Gujarati, Russian, Urdu and Korean. However this U.N. gets along without international incident through the Resolving Conflict Creatively Program (RCCP), Brown explained, that teaches students to "get along and respect other people’s rights."
Hanover said she was impressed with the "magnificent dance students" who performed for her, including a "pep squad performance," and the "clearly top notch, professional" teachers. As a television journalist, Hanover said she was also impressed with the school’s television studio and she stopped in to be interviewed by a student from Parson Junior High School, the first Queens Cool School in June of 1994.
Hanover said that since she began giving out the award, she has honored over 10 Queens schools and found the borough to be "a wonderful place for education . . . clearly there is a lot of parental involvement. A lot of life [in Queens] centers around the children and the children know that" which is important for their development and for the City’s development.
P.S. 164 was selected for this latest honor, which includes a visit from the City’s First Lady, tee shirts for the students, and a Cool School clock as a lasting reminder of their achievement.
P.S. 164 was selected as a result of letters written to the First Lady’s office by its former Arts Coordinator & Visual Arts Teacher Nancy Wallach and its current Dance Teacher Jeffrey Dobbs. Brown noted that although Hanover honored her school’s coolness this week, the children and staff know that "cool things go on here on a regular basis."