Late on a Wednesday afternoon, the compact interior of his Pearl City music school, Hawaii MusicWorks, is a swirl of teens, pre-teens, and very-pre-teens dashing from classroom to classroom.

In one room, two teenage electric guitarists work on proper riot grrrl stage interaction. In another, a handful of 7- to 9-year-old girls are either slinging axes on their shoulders, adjusting their headset mikes, or checking the stand height of an electric drum pad.

At the end of the hall, a junior rocker spills a box of Cap'n Crunch on the carpet.

Santos dismisses his beginning piano and composition class, and laughs as the reporter snatches his bag off the floor to protect it from the feet of a half-dozen pre-teens darting out of the classroom. An accompanying photographer does the same with her equipment.

"Believe it or not, this isn't even our busiest day," says Santos.

Welcome to Pearl City's very-own "School of Rock." Well, sort of.

Santos is hardly a doppelgänger, physically or mentally, for his fictional "School of Rock" counterpart Dewey Finn.

As played to comic near-perfection by Jack Black in the $76 million-grossing comedy, Finn is a failed twentysomething musician/slacker/penultimate rock 'n' roll fan who, posing as a substitute teacher, hijacks a classroom full of prep-school pre-teens to help him win a battle-of-the-bands competition. Tossing out math lessons and letter grades, Finn assigns Yes, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath CDs as homework. In class, he instructs his young charges on the serious musical importance of "raising the goblet of rock" and "sticking it to The Man."

Santos, on the other hand, is a former musician about town who owns and runs his own music instruction school. The school, which also offers traditional music instruction classes, has boosted its menu of rock music classes since its first in 1998.

Unlike Finn, Santos wouldn't dream of yanking kids out of their regular school classes for rock-related field trips. Encouraging his students to toss out their math homework in order to absorb his beloved Deep Purple and Black Oak Arkansas CDs? As improbable as another Van Halen reunion with David Lee Roth.

'Crazy' instructor

Still, there are a few similarities between the two.

"Well, he's crazy," says Krystal Shimabukuro, 14, a MusicWorks student, of Santos. "But in a good sense."

Santos has just left aspiring rock guitarists Shimabukuro and Sarah Sollner, also 14, alone in a classroom to work on their on-stage interaction and live performance skills.

While carefully observing the duo run through a cover of Michelle Branch's "Are You Happy Now" minutes earlier, Santos was pointedly honest about what he wanted them to work on, but patient in getting desired results. He's a boyish-looking 41 years old, and the long bangs of Santos' thick, shoulder-brushing mane of hair sweep past his eyes like wiper blades when he gets excited about something — which happens quite often.

When the girls nailed a proper rock guitar pose, a suitable angry snarl, or anything else he liked, Santos was quick to offer, "Yeah, yeah, Sarah!" or "That's the pose, Krystal!"

On the song's faster-paced guitar-driven choruses, Santos — dressed from head to toe in enough black to risk being mistaken for one of his teenage students — went into a spasm of full headbanger nods to encourage the same from the two.

"(Dewey) was trying to let the kids enjoy themselves," says Shimabukuro, expounding on real-life vs. filmed fiction. "And Mark does that a lot. He tends to make us laugh a lot. But he's also a really good teacher."

Inspired by Elton John

Santos quit piano lessons five times before age 12.

"It just seemed to be very boring ... very black and white, lots of facts," says Santos. "I could read and play the music put in front of me, but it didn't mean anything because I didn't relate to the pieces."

Then Santos discovered a mid-1970s flamboyant Elton John.

"All of a sudden, here was this piano player that was bigger than life," says Santos. "That motivated me enough to go back to lessons. And by studying him — along with my teachers — I discovered what music was. It wasn't just notes on paper. It was about music soaring and communicating a message."

The result for MusicWorks? Santos and his staff of seven instructors offer all students an ample base of music theory and classical studies to draw from, but also encourage student improvisation, creativity and finding their own musical voice. While MusicWorks instructors choose much of the rock and pop menu used for instruction, students are encouraged to also bring in music they want to learn.

Students have so far brought in everything from Michelle Branch and Evanescence to blink-182 and Metallica.

"It has to be balanced with ability," says Santos. "Sometimes they'll bring in stuff, and we have to tell them they're not ready for it yet. But we build them up to it."

In that case, here's a suggestion, Mark: Let Crystal — who just formed her first band — shred some of that Joan Jett she's been asking about.

'We Got the Beat'

Marisa Stanley, 8, shares that she's been a drummer for "a long, long time ... a whole year."

With a mall performance three days away, her six-member performance group — all ages 7 to 9 — have run through a cover of "We Got The Beat" several times and are enjoying a much-deserved break.

They know who made the song famous: "The Go-Go's!" they all shout, shooting the reporter searing looks for mistaking them for rock history slackers. The reporter next gets scolded for not knowing anything about female Swedish teen-pop vocal foursome Play, one of their musical influences.

The girls rehearse the song one last time. Kacie Won and Tiana Ibale practice interaction and chords on electric guitar. Kira Santos (Mark's daughter), Teariana Patricio and Mari Arakawa offer strong vocals and fly stage moves. Stanley is appropriately Keith Moon-ish behind her drum pads.

Santos pops into the room and busts some whack moves.

"Uncle Mark!" all six scream, apparently because he's seriously throwing off their more polished steps.

Though the group gets major applause from their appreciative parents afterward, Patricio marches out into the hall and shoots Santos a playful scolding.

"You!" she says, pointing an accusing finger.

The rest of the girls gather around Stanley's drum kit for a chance to kick some beats.

"They all want to play drums," one of the moms tells the reporter, sighing then laughing.

Perpetuating the passion

Is rock really all about "sticking it to The Man?"

Arriving in the middle of a barrage of "School of Rock"-related queries, the unexpected question still throws Santos into a serious fit of laughter.

"You know, it was for us in our day and age," says Santos. "But I really don't think it's the same with kids nowadays."

•	Hawaii MusicWorks • Pearl Kai Shopping Center • 625-6648 • On the Web at www.hawaiimusicworks.com

"Dewey got into the minds of the students, and found out what motivated them," says Santos. "He was able to transfer the passion he had for the music to his students and have them play with passion.

"A good teacher motivates students ... makes them feel good, proud and want to do a good job with their music. And that's what he did."

Which leaves only one more question.

Do you believe you "serve society by rocking?"

Santos bursts into laughter again.

"I like to think so."