Is there anything special about ebonite and fur? I'm from Czech Republic, born 1980.  From elementary school, we all remember this mantra:

When ebonite rod is rubbed with fox fur, electrostatic charge is created.
  Electrostatic charge is created by rubbing ebonite rod with fox fur.
  Rubbing ebonite fur with fox fur creates electrostatic charge.

Etc. ad nauseam.
So...
Is there anything special about the combination of ebonite and fox fur that makes it especially useful for teaching kids about electricity?
Does there even exist a clear distinction between things that do and things that don't create electrostatic charge by rubbing?

The irony: I can't remember ever hearing the word 'ebonite' in any other context than this particular strange example.  (I never even knew what ebonite was until about 15 minutes ago when I googled it.)
 A: You're looking for the triboelectric effect.
The triboelectric series is an empirical table of materials in order, such that materials high on the list tend to give electrons to materials lower on the list. Fur is high, ebonite is low. Materials of similar index don't build up much charge separation from rubbing, while materials with largely different index do.
A: The electrons in fur are much less tightly bound than electrons in ebonite (very strong relative bond, ebonite is at the bottom of the negative Triboelectric series, see [1]) and hence ebonite gets a strong relative negative charge [1].
"A material towards the bottom of the Triboelectric series table, when touched to a material near the top of the series, will acquire a more negative charge."
So to answer the question, this particular combination of materials will cause a very strong electrostatic effect. Ebonite is very strong negatively static charged.
A: Static electricity is observed with a plastic comb after you comb dry hair. 
So there is nothing special about ebonite except ancient report which led to the name electricity. 
