I remember in public school under the Ottawa Board of Education, in grades 4-6 we learned A Capital Ship & Barbara Allen, Acres of Clams, Streets of Laredo, The Keeper (which I already knew from home) and many more songs the names of which escape me just now. These were all in a school music text book.

But I was already singing folk music at home with my mother (songs like Cindy, Gently Johnny My Jingalo, The Frozen Logger, J'entends le moulin, Vive la canadienne, Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot, Hey-up! Judy Drownded, Bimini, The Ballad of Jesus Christ, Log Roller's Waltz, Uncle Reuben, Squid-Jiggin' Ground and many, MANY more). Mom played guitar and banjo to accompany folk songs from here (Canada) as well as USA, British Isles and the Caribbean. My father taught me ukelele when I was much too small to manage a guitar fretboard. My maternal grandmother is the one I heard singing the "popular folk" of her day--Cockles & Mussels, Loch Lomond, Skye Boat Song to name 3--accompanying herself on piano.

Folk music was always just there, a given in my childhood, so I understood what was being taught by the time it came up at school although only minimal historical context was given there. At home the Fireside Book of Folk Songs was always on or beside the piano, which is where all music books were kept, including mom's Pete Seeger teach-yourself guitar and 5-string banjo books. Oh and a Burl Ives songbook, and Songs for Canadian Boys, which, mom assured me, were quite suitable for me to sing as well, and a Gordon Lightfoot songbook.

In grades 7 & 8 under the Carleton Board (southern 'burbs of Ottawa) as part of phys. ed. the girls got a couple of 2-week units in folk dancing (boys did not). One unit was North American dances--line, round and square. And only the dances of the invaders, no dances of the conquered peoples were included. The other unit was called "international" and included the Hora, something German and several others I don't recall but again it was a mix. Always the music was recorded. I would have LOVED to dance the whole year in place of floor hockey, track and field, etc.

I would say that those Ottawa-area educators got something partly right in the 1960s, but they thoroughly missed the notion of Canadian music, which I gained entirely at home.