Well, this whole "folk music's dying; no one teaches it in school" thing...
It's probably a lot like Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" segment on the "Tonight Show."

**For those unfamiliar--they walk around with their camera, asking simple questions about current events, history, art, or whatever, and then show these complete idiots, who claim to be college students, doctors, teachers, or whatever, and give the stupidest answers imaginable. It's oftren embarrassing to watch!!
They might show them a picutre of Thomas Jefferson or Ben Franklin, and ask who it is, and you get dorks who say "Kennedy?"...or folks who think that the Civil War was fought in 1933...sutff like that. It's enough to make you doubt that the world can possibly continue much longer.
Like the dorks in the UK I heard about on the news today, who were voting for Homer Simpson as the most famous American...Honestly, *can* a cartoon character be the most famous *anything?* besides cartoon, of course... (Again, I'm sure there are pleny of people across the pond who KNOW that Homer Simpson is a cartoon--but they didn't ask them!)**

But back to the music--
I do know of several schools with deplorable music programs. I've suffered through dreadful canned shows with hokey lyrics and insipid music. I've been disgusted with my share of music teachers. Still--

I'm sure I'm not the only teacher using music in her classroom!! (although I *have* considered getting some of my 'homemade' books published; I've made up illustrations for several traditional, well-known folk songs, and my kids love them.)

If you are teaching, and you know the songs, it's easy to make up a book--especially if you can draw marginally well, or are handy with a good computer graphics program. (I've done it both ways.)

My tips (keep in mind that I teach early elementary)--
~Don't put too many words on a page; either the print or the picture will have to be too small;
~Use the same picture every time the chorus comes around, or a *slight* variation thereof;
~If you play an instrument (I keep an autoharp in my classroom), use it as in incentive: "As soon as you can follow along, and keep the pages turned at the right times, I'll be able to play the autoharp while we sing..."
It'll astonish you, how fast kindergarten and first grade, non-reading students learn to track the words as you go. Before long, they recognize the words, and soon they'll recognize them out of context, too.

An example: I made a book of Jay Ungar & Molly Mason's "Bound for Another Harvest Home." It has been a favorite with my students every year. The first year I used it, in the fall, one of my pre-reading first-graders came tearing into the classroom with a supermarket flyer one morning. "Look! Look! I found it in the paper! Right here--this page says "HARVEST!" And sure enough--the grocery store was having a "Harvest Sale." The parents were fairly stunned, but I wasn't too surprised. (Pleased, yes; surprised, no.) So, now their son knew a good song AND learned to read a few new words, in the bargain.

The kids are also REALLY excited when they can come back to school and tell me that their mom or dad know a song WE know (usually "This Land is Your Land" or "God Bless America."). It makes them feel that school has some relevance to the rest of their life.

So, there you go, Patty--I don't even have to write a book! You now know my basic theory and process...
--Denise:^)