Well, since you said "not recorder", I can say "Tonette" (technically not a recorder, though recorder-like).
When I was in elementary school, NY State had a program to introduce all students to instrumental music in the fourth grade. I only recently discovered (recalling this and looking into it), that this was part of a NATIONAL program in which instruments (mostly Tonettes) were bought by parents for the students, and classes played out of little booklets (like marching band books) as an "ensemble of the whole". I learned to read treble clef and to play the damned thing pretty well (range was maybe two octaves?). I think you can actually buy these things on Ebay if you keep your eyes peeled for them. A primary attribute of the Tonette, I believe, was that it was virtually indestructable. You could maybe melt one with a torch. Otherwise, it was really hard to damage. I think it cost around a buck.
Near the end of fifth grade we each got to talk with the "real" instrumental music teacher about joining band in the sixth grade. We got to express our preference for an instrument. I wanted to play trombone (my mother's old instrument and her first choice), but he said that my arm wasn't long enough to reach 7th position. This was nonsense, and I knew it at the time (being one of the tallest kids in class), but maybe he already had too many trombone players (can you really have too many?). I recall that the band/orchestra instructor was a violinist and both looked and acted more than bit like Napoleon. So I ended up with saxophone (my father's first choice). I stuck with that for about fifteen years, moved to double on flute along the way, and then in my mid-forties decided to finally do low brass. I don't regret it the switch to brass a bit. I do regret the fifteen years with the saxophone (but not the flute).
Gary Merrill
Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)