I knew folksongs like Oh Susanna and I've Been Working on the Railroad, but I don't remember ever learning them in school. Music class in school consisted of unknown, simple tunes intended to torture children who are forced to learn sight-singing. (New York and then Connecticut in the late 50's).

I also remember school assemblies where they showed films intended to inspire civic values, and for some reason this one refrain sticks from my grammar school days:

We have a law that makes us proud
And no law can be better
It gives us all the right we need
The right to write a letter.