Why was Square Dancing a mandatory part of the educational curriculum in modern, citified regions of the US?

I could never understand WHY as kids in the Northeast metropolitan tri-state area, we were being forced to dance in a countrified manner, being awkwardly paired up with partners who at that age had "cooties" hangups, all while some hick cowboy on a record is demanding that we "swing our partners 'round and 'round" and "dosey-do them to the ground". It was almost as scarring as having brussel sprouts inundate one's refrigerator, and we all know how dangerous that can be.