4 days ago
A fitting, yet difficult finale ahead for Benson, Minnesota, music teacher
Jun. 11---- A love for music led Brock Duncan to the Benson Schools as its band director.
A love for young people — and his belief in what an education in music can offer them for the entirety of their lives — kept him there for 34 years.
"One of the hardest days of teaching was the day I told my kids I was leaving," Duncan said. He paused to hold his emotions in check at the memory of the announcement he made last December before adding: "It was tough. It was a hard day."
The hardest day is still ahead: This Friday, he will lead the Benson High School Marching Band down the community's streets as its director for the final time in the Pioneerland Band Festival. Benson has hosted the parade for 38 years running, and Duncan has played a leadership role with it from his start as band director.
"He's a rock star," said Dennis Laumeyer, superintendent of schools for Benson. He applauded Duncan for how he has inspired young people of all abilities and built great relationships with them throughout his career, while also handling the myriad responsibilities that come with his role.
The Benson school bands led by Duncan have won regional and statewide recognition — as has Duncan, for his role with the school and for leading regional musical performers such as the Prairie Winds Concert Band, the superintendent noted. The community band — which Duncan directed for 12 years before stepping down in April 2024 — is based in Willmar and comprises members from towns in the area.
Duncan also stands out among his peers for the length of years he's devoted to this work, according to Jerri Neddermeyer, executive director of the Minnesota Music Educators Association.
"It is rare for teachers to remain in music education for lengthy careers of service," Neddermeyer told the West Central Tribune in an email. The demands on music teachers are "incredible," she said.
Duncan is a 1987 graduate of Apple Valley High School and a 1991 graduate of St. Olaf College in Northfield, where he earned a degree in music.
His father, an Air Force pilot, had encouraged him to pursue opportunities in the military. But Duncan said he had to tell his father: "I enjoyed music too much to give it up."
He made a backpacking trip through Europe in the summer after his graduation from St. Olaf. In his absence, his mother applied on his behalf for a music position she saw advertised for the Benson Schools.
The school waited until he returned to interview him on July 26, 1991. In August, the school handed over the baton to its new director.
"You're the only person," said Duncan of the role he suddenly found himself in. "Everybody is asking you about musical stuff, other stuff. Stuff you have no chance of knowing.
" ... A really steep learning curve," he said.
Here's what he's learned over the course of his career as a music director: There are lots of great memories. Audiences cheering his students. The goosebumps that come as you feel pride in what your students have accomplished through their hard work.
Teaching music offers the opportunity to work with and know each of your students over the course of seven years, and that is special, he said.
The biggest reward that comes with this career is very simple. "Mostly, it is watching kids growing up. Saying you had a part in who they are: A better person for being in class," he said.
Benson brought him other unexpected rewards. In his first year as a teacher, he met another first-year educator. The graduate from St. Olaf's biggest rival, Concordia College, became his wife.
Anne Duncan is also retiring after a 34-year career as a third-grade teacher with the Benson Schools. She and her husband are parents to three grown children.
Brock Duncan knows well the "incredible demands" on music teachers to which Neddermeyer referred.
Neddermeyer warns that there is a crisis in music education across the state. There are fewer students entering collegiate programs to become teachers. There are elementary, middle school and secondary programs across the state that are unable to fill vacant positions, according to Neddermeyer.
Band directors in rural schools put in long hours — and long years. In 34 years, Duncan has never had more than a two-week break during the summer. There are plenty of 10- and 12-hour school days, weekend concerts, summer band practices and parades, and come August, the start of instruction for the newest band members.
Duncan has watched as neighboring school districts have dropped marching band programs — Willmar among them. Budgets and transportation costs have impacted music programs, he said.
Schools are seeing fewer students enroll in music programs, which are elective. Some students are choosing to earn college credits through the Postsecondary Enrollment Options in place of band, said Duncan.
There is more pressure on students today to commit their time to a single sport or to sports overall. Many potential band members are spending their summer weekends playing their chosen sports in place of marching in band.
There are also other societal challenges being felt too.
"There are no shortcuts to learning to play an instrument," Duncan said. Students need to practice, practice and practice, but fewer students will make that commitment today, he said.
In a digital world, attention spans are decreasing, he said.
Young people are continuously distracted by their cellphones and the digital entertainment targeted to them. TikTok and other apps offer "24 hours of sugar" to young people, he said. "We can't figure out a way to get the sugar out of them."
All of the above has meant declining numbers for band programs, Duncan said. The problem is greater in rural districts, where school enrollments are declining. He's watched enrollment decline from more than 100 students per class to just half of that during his career in Benson.
As the numbers decline, it's harder to maintain the "critical mass" that a successful music program needs, he explained.
Yet he is leaving his position hopeful for the future in Benson. There may be some bumps ahead, but he's confident that others will step forward to continue the Pioneerland Band Festival in the wake of the departure of some of its longtime leaders.
He is more concerned that as the number of bands continues to shrink, and transportation costs and distance continue to increase for those remaining, it will become even more difficult to recruit bands for the parade.
He's also hopeful for the ongoing success of the school's music program. First of all, he points to the students in the program as "great kids."
The school has hired a successor who will begin her career in music. She comes with a background in marching band.
Duncan previously decided that he would continue working into July to help with the transition, rather than retiring at the end of the school year.
"It would have been so much easier if I had just done graduation and just shut the door," he said. "I needed a little more closure. The 56 (band students) in summer deserve a transition instead of a closed door," he said.
He said he and Anne will be moving to the Hinckley area to be closer to family and with plans to start a new chapter in their lives.
