After a while Banks sits down behind the upright piano, opens a book of scores, and starts to play themes from "Carmen."

When the piano falters, Rinaldo, a stocky round-faced Italian, looks back at me with a grin. "She messed up," he tells me.

"Gloom is hanging over this opera," says Banks from behind the piano. "I want you all to know this."

Erik gets up to dance when Banks plays the opera's "Street Boys' Chorus."

At this point, no one appears to be listening to what the teacher is saying. All prepare work for next period and talk. Michelle, who sits in the front row with Khalilah, gets up to check answers with her, and Erik is still making rounds of the room. Paper airplanes fly.

"The class was out of control," Khalilah tells me later. "Some teachers don't set standard rules for the class. She cares, but...strict is better," she says. "Any class I taught would be learning, 'cause I would be all over them."

"Let me think I'm doing something here," the music teacher begs. "Pretend--be actresses here."

After a while she stops playing piano and loads a classical tape into the cassette player.

"C'mon, I wanna hear rap," says Erik.

He sits behind the piano, tinkles out a few notes, and gets up again. Khalilah, who has been doing work and helping her friend Michelle the whole time, looks at Erik and shakes her head.

"It's just music," explains Keith, a thin freckled boy with red hair tossed to one side of his forehead.

"Opera is larger than life," says Banks, her hands waving in broad strokes high above her head. Then Erik stands in front of the class and conducts the music with equally broad movements.

Finally, Banks sighs and sits behind a table in front, hands in her lap. She does nothing to stop the class from replacing the classical cassette with one of their own rap tapes. "Rap began a long time ago," she says softly, as the bass begins to boom over her voice. "It's gone through about three forms already."

James, a short boy with a raspy laugh, jumps up to compete in a paper ball throwing contest. "See what this music has done to James," cries Banks. She pushes the stop button on the tape recorder.

Rinaldo turns around to tell me to write that they like reggae.