From my elementary school days in Ottawa in the 60's, I seem to remember what was a pretty much American repertoire--all the Stephen Foster and cowboy songs, with a bit of British ("The Maple Leaf Forever", supposedly a Canadian song but actually a celebration of the British Empire's conquest here) and probably "Farewell to Nova Scotia" and "She's Like The Swallow".

No, it wasn't school that got me into folk music. It was a pile of scratchy old records that my parents had acquired when they lived in Newfoundland before I was born--Alan Mills, Ed McCurdy, Omar Blondahl and the like.

But what did I learn in school that was useful later on? That's easy, just one thing:

TYPING!

I mean it. Should have taken some shop classes--I had no idea that I'd end up needing to know how to build things and fix things.