What is square dancing and why did some Florida schools make kids learn it?

When it comes back to recalling memories from our public school days, some are easier to recall than others. But how many of us are still shuddering at having to randomly remember how to square dance in gym class?

It seems to be the million dollar question asked on social media — why was learning how to square dance even a thing in school?

Square dancing is currently designated as the official state dances in over half of the 50 states, including in Florida. The state-mandated celebration of Americana has been terrorizing generations of students since the 1930s.

But why? Here's how the dance sidestepped its way into our curriculum nearly 100 years ago.

What is square dancing?

Per Merriam-Webster, square dancing is type of dance that starts with four couples facing one another in a square, with the steps and movements shouted out by a caller. Although the dancers begin in a square, the formation of the dancers will change up with each motion from the caller.

What are the origins of square dancing?

As American as the dance feels, the origins of the dance have been traced back to dances from 17th century England and France. It eventually came to North America with European immigrants.

Author Philip Jamison wrote that one of the biggest influences of the dance and why it was seen as "pure" American was Cecil Sharp, an English musician, teacher, and folk collector who traveled through the southern US Appalachian mountains between 1916 and 1918.

During his travels through Appalachian communities, he was surprised that many of these isolated Americans were still singing old British ballads that had died out in England nearly a century prior. Sharp’s travels eventually took him to eastern Kentucky, where he found the square dance.

JSTOR wrote that Sharp viewed these examples of southern culture to be the "purest Anglo-Saxon heritage” in America. Jamison also noted that Sharp overlooked the already diverse population of Appalachia and their influence on the dance, hardly mentioning the Native Americans and enslaved African populations.

Why was square dancing first taught in US schools?

So why did we have to spend countless hours learning how to count our steps and do-si-do in gym class? According to the business news website Quartz, it's all thanks to American industrialist and part-time Florida resident, Henry Ford.

The founder of Ford Motor Company hated jazz music. Per Richard Peterson’s “Ten Things You Didn’t Know about the Origins of Country Music," Ford was "frightened by what he saw as the urban decadence of couples jazz dancing."

Quartz also reported that Ford is said to have hated Jewish people and believed a racist theory that the Jewish community created jazz music to "corrupt the masses." In volume three of Ford’s The International Jew series, written in 1921, he wrote:

“Many people have wondered whence come the waves upon waves of musical slush that invade decent homes and set the young people of this generation imitating the drivel of morons. Popular music is a Jewish monopoly. Jazz is a Jewish creation. The mush, slush, the sly suggestion, the abandoned sensuousness of sliding notes, are of Jewish origin.”

What does that have to do with square dancing? you might be wondering. Well Ford was a huge fan of the “old fashion dancing," hiring professionals to teach him, his wife and friends how to square dance.

Ford would go on to pour thousands into square dancing and country music in general, publishing an instruction manual for aspiring square dancing instructors in 1926 and requiring his employees to attend square dancing events he created for them.

He, along with his wife and their square dance instructor Benjamin Lovett, later campaigned to bring square dancing to the physical education classes of students across the country in the 1930s. This action would lead to countless kids having to swing their partners "round and round" for decades to come.

What have social media users said learning how to square dance in school?

Every few years, it seems as though one brave soul recovers the memory of having to learn square dancing steps in school and ventures onto social to ask if anyone else faced the same fever dream. Responses range from "I completely forgot about that" to "I have no clue what you're talking about."

The prompt has even inspired some quick-witted responses and memes.

Is square dancing still taught in schools?

Kind of. Across America, some schools are still opting to learn the dance and even a few still have square dancing clubs.

Over the last 90 years, the motivation and popularity has ebbed and flowed. The Quartz report mentioned that even into the 1930s, the desire to dance died for a bit until Colorado school superintendent named Lloyd “Pappy” Shaw helped revive the tradition.

Square dancing also gained national popularity in the 1980s when former President Ronald Reagan declared square dancing the national folk dance of the US for 1982 and 1983 by signing a bill.

The bill praised square dancing because “the American people value the display of etiquette among men and women which is a major element of square dancing,” and as a “traditional form of family recreation” that “dissolves arbitrary social distinctions.”

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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Square dancing in school origins have a history traced to Henry Ford