Sorry you were an idiot. The entire idea of a recorder is merely introducing kids to music, rather, the 7 tone Western scale that all Western music is derived from. A) To see if they have natural talent. Most kids have a bit, a few are gifted and a few are tone deaf or simply too dumb and B) to plant music in kid's heads, the basic concept of a scale and tones. Those blessed with talent usually understand it right away, it just clicks. Those that sort of get it, with some practice, may become passable players at least. Either way, most find it intriguing. In the third grade, intrigue about learning something is sort of the main goal. That and cursive writing.

Because you were given one in what, the third grade? Hmmm... typically in most schools, Concert Band begins in... fourth grade. And now the teacher has a bit of an idea as to who is gonna be the next Liberace and who is gonna be the next Triangle player next year.

So, no, the purpose of learning the recorder was not to actually learn the recorder but to see where you stood re: possessing a musical brain or the ability and fortitude to learn. It's been proven that this is the optimal age to begin to learn music, much how like learning a second language is easier to a little kid than an adult; the brain at that age learns differently.

TMYK.