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Schoolhouse Rock

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In a saner culture, Barbara Klaskin Harris would probably have never metamorphosed into Mrs. Music. But in 30 minutes, she will see that her charges--on this morning, a class of second-graders at Vena Avenue Elementary School in Arleta--get more musical instruction than many students do in their entire K-12 experience.

Accompanying herself on piano, autoharp or dulcimer, Harris, who dons a treble clef necklace, whisks the children from the Revolutionary War (“Yankee Doodle Dandy”) through slavery (“Pick a Bale of Cotton”) to the Civil War (“When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again”). She links popular songs of bygone eras with pivotal inventions--”Come, Josephine, in My Flying Machine,” for example--and has re-created the flapper era with “Ain’t She Sweet.” And she has been known to spin “Rum and Coca-Cola” on a vintage gramophone.

“I hated history, I couldn’t remember anything,” recalls Harris, a former model. “I made myself promise that if I teach, I will teach music and history together.” This can translate into song-and-dance narratives with a high corn factor: Enthusiastic kids, armed with miniature American flags, who parade in circles to the tune of “Johnny.”

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By her own acknowledgment, Harris, who also leads the West L.A. Children’s Choir, is no virtuoso. But as long as she’s filling a void, Mrs. Music will soldier on: “This is the one aural link we have that we can pass down.”

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