Mickey’s (Marty’s) 10 Commandments as Applied To Education

Disney Legend Marty Sklar penned “Mickey’s 10 Commandments”, as a way to set the Disney standard aside from other companies in the same business, and to be the guiding principles that the Imagineers, and so many other members of the Disney Family, have followed for all these years since.

In Marty’s newest, posthumous, book titled “Travels with Figment”, he dedicates an entire chapter about the importance of Mickey’s 10 Commandments, and fills the chapter with many paragraphs written by those who were affected by Mickey’s 10 Commandments (although, affectionately, they are Marty’s 10 Commandments). From Disney Imagineers, to executives across many companies, and mentees of Marty’s, Mickey’s 10 Commandments have stretched above and beyond their initial intention, and as Marty says, can truly be applied to anything!

In honor of Marty, I’ve compiled how Mickey’s 10 Commandments can be applied to Education.

1. Know Your Audience

Knowing your audience isn’t about knowing just what grade level you may be teaching. It goes beyond that concept, and transcends itself into knowing and understanding each individual child in your classroom. Knowing your audience, in education, means to know exactly HOW each child learns. Are they kinesthetic learners or visual learners? Do they favor and excel at one learning style over another? What are their favorite subjects? How do they feel each day?How can you help each child be successful? Knowing your audience isn’t knowing about the basic facts of your students, it’s diving deeper into how they learn, feel, and what makes that student successful and welcomed in your classroom.

2. Wear Your Guests’ Shoes

Live each and every day like you are your students. Walk a mile in their shoes. Consider what you’re assigning, your educational approach, and the level of difficulty pertaining to how each of your students learn (I.e., Commandment ). If you were to complete every assignment, take every test, and do every activity, would you be successful and focus, or would it not help you retain the information you so needed? Your classroom is your theme park, and you need to realize exactly how your students feel when they enter your classroom.

3. Organize the Flow of People and Ideas

This can be applied to many things in the classroom. Let the ideas you have from your class flow into the blank canvas that is your lesson plans and classroom. Keep everything sequential and easy to understand. Your students should be able to understand YOUR story in YOUR classroom. If you view your classroom like a story, you should flow from one chapter (subject) to another sequentially and keep your main ideas and vision statement in focus.

4. Create a Weenie (Visual Magnet)

In each center, let a part of the lesson featured draw the student to that area. When picking centers, students should be drawn to a center that they are most interested in. Create a visual magnet that draws the student to that section and allows them to explore a concept or subject they may not have explored in full before. Like Cinderella Castle, the mountains of Big Thunder Mountain, Spaceship Earth, or the Pixar Pal-a-Round, create something that draws a student to an area to experience something they haven’t before.

5. Communicate with Visual LiteracyVisuals in teaching are imperative. Sometimes, it’s easier for a student to see the concept applied and in action as opposed to a mundane lecture or worksheet on the concept. Media is so important in this day and age, especially in education. Songs, videos, apps, computer programs, and online resources play a huge role in how children are educated. Make sure to make use of the technology in your classroom to give the students a fun, out of the box way to approach a concept that could otherwise be long and tedious to teach and to learn.

6. Avoid Overload - Create Turn Ons

As Figment sings, “one little spark of inspiration is at the heart of all creation”! It’s so important to ignite that spark in the students. Don’t overload your students with work, lectures, worksheets, tests, and assignments. Turn on their imagination, ignite their spark, and pave the way for intuitive thinking and input in the discussion. Draw the students into the lesson. Start your lesson out with an opening activity. Introduce the topic, and provide an introductory activity to help them understand the concept they’re about to learn. I’ve had teachers act out historical figures we were going to learn about, or introduced fun memory songs to aid the lesson. Always, and this is important, allow for questions and comments that could be debatable, students will love this! But most importantly, ignite that one little spark of inspiration!

7. Tell One Story at a Time

Don’t scatter your lesson plans. Including anecdotes are okay, but don’t throw your lesson completely off track because you are attempting to include another story in something else you are teaching! Stick to a consistent lesson, because it helps the students with consistency, and improves understanding. Overloading your students with too much information and other stories (i.e., Commandment 6) will overload their minds and overstimulate them, causing them to become uninterested in the lesson you’re teaching.

8. Avoid Contradiction - Maintain Identity

Remember who you are as a Teacher, and don’t stray from that idea. Avoid contradicting how you present yourself. Be consistent in your attitudes, outlook, vision, and mission statement for your classroom. Treat everyone with equity, and maintain all of your classroom rules and management styles. YOU are your own Teacher, and YOU have a say in what kind of Teacher YOU want to be!

9. For Every Ounce of Treatment, Provide a Ton of Treat

In Education terms, for every ounce of a Common Core Standard you must meet, provide a ton of fun, inclusive, interesting, and developmentally appropriate activities! While you need to provide the treatment of a balanced, appropriate, and developmental lesson plan, there are ways to add a ton of fun (treats) to all your lessons to help make them appealing to all of your students!

10. Keep it Up (Maintain It)!

Keep on top of the changing standards in your district and nationally, always keep on top of new laws regarding schools, find more developmentally appropriate activities, continue to find more ways to differentiate your instruction, and re-aquatint yourself with all of your lessons and materials! The same lesson over and over can be boring, so maintain your lessons! Change them, cut them, add to them, whatever you can do to keep them refreshed and exciting! Always remember that you can’t use the same lesson more than once. One thing your students did last year, your students this year may not be able to do, so you have to make changes accordingly!

Thank you, Marty, for giving us all commandments to follow that will impact our lives forever!