June 9th is Donald Duck Day.  I’m not quite sure how Donald gets his own day and Goofy doesn’t.  Though I guess we could say that any day politicians are in charge of anything is Goofy Day.

As a Disney nerd though, I’ve always dug Donald.  One of the rights of passage of childhood is trying to do his voice.  I’ve never been able to master it.

If you were to say to Donald, “It’s the most fun you can have with pants on.”, he’d fire back with “I never wear pants.  Try again.”  That’s how much of a baddass he is.  He doesn’t just go commando.  He goes Garden of Eden.

But really, the one moment when Donald Duck always meant the most to me was when we’d see the film projector roll into the classroom.  Especially if it was normally math time. Because that meant Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land!

I don’t remember the first time I saw it.  Might have been 2nd grade or so.  But every single time a film projector entered the classroom from then on I was thinking, “Come on Donald in Mathmagic Land… Come ooooon….”

And it was only maybe 3 more times after that.  A super rare treat.  You couldn’t even get it on VHS back in the day.  So you HAD to wait for it at school.

There were two cool things about Donald Duck showing up to teach math.  First, it was a dose of Disney in the classroom.  Like a splash of color on a gray wall.  Literally, I supposed with a film projector.  But even better, you knew there wasn’t going to be a test!

The concepts in this film were way above what we were learning at the time.  The Golden Ratio in 2nd grade? C’mon, that wasn’t going to be on any test.  But by the time you got around to learning it, you could think back on this cartoon and realize that you’d learned a little way back when.

Now I have it on DVD.  And it’s on YouTube of course.  So, do yourself a favor and refresh all those high school math concepts you’ve forgotten about in the most enjoyable way possible.  Through a half nude duck with a speech impediment.