Greetings, fellow folks... My wife and I are preparing a program of folk music/storytelling/games and such that will be presented at schools, day-care centers, YMCAs and the like.

One of our main motivators is the seeming demise of music programs in our (USA) elementary schools. I mean that in the sense that kids these days don't seem to be getting introduced to the great folk songs that make up so much of America's musical legacy.

When I was a kid, we had "music class" where we sang things like "Michael, Row..." and a version of "John Henry" and "If I Had A Hammer" and "This Land..." and "Pay Me My Money Down" and "Hand Me Down My Silver Trumpet"... so many great songs that were fun and educational and sometimes even just silly.

So... long-winded introductions notwithstanding, if you were on the 'editorial board' of this here program, what songs do you think the set just could NOT do without? What songs are over-done and should be avoided? What are the classics? The songs you want to see last for more generations to come?

(By the way, I'm a big bear of a guy with a big booming voice and I LOVE to ramble and roam and travel all sorts of places, so understand that your help in this matter will be used to form a program that we will work like heck to make accessible and far-reaching in its efforts.)