alt Hacker NewsMusic shops sell a lot of ukuleles. Huge numbers at Christmas, it's a very popular gift.
It's a fabulous instrument, nuanced and subtle, and you can buy beautiful instruments these days for really not much money at all.
But AFAIK its popularity in school as a teaching instrument has as much to do with Spongebob as it does its capability :-)
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I've found the ukulele a lot more rewarding than the guitar and have found I've learnt more about the guitar from it than from the guitar (if that makes sense.) It is a better introduction.The fact it has four strings makes it a lot easier to form chords on. At least for me.
I think I was put off by certain players for a while such as Tiny Tim and some of the hipster types. But it really has won me over in its way.
Eddie Vedder has done some excellent ukulele songs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W0B-1iF6S4
Then of course there is Taimane Gardner who is ridiculously good.
You can also massively improve many inexpensive ukuleles by restringing them.