By Brian McDaniel loves his kids — all 5,000 of them.
McDaniel is a Cal State Long Beach alumnus and Painted Hills High School music teacher, and this month, was named one of five Teachers of the Year from California who has been chosen to represent the state for the National Teacher of the Year awards in April. He is most recognized for the band and choir program, The Regiment, which he implemented in 2006 and has now branched out to three different schools.
The program is meant to encourage pride among students by giving them a sense of unity and responsibility through their role in the band and choir.
“We’re showing the value of students that they can have not only for themselves, but for each other,” McDaniel said. “[The Regiment] is a family.”
The program has recruited over 5,000 students from various schools, and gone to national competitions in New York and performances at colleges.
When McDaniel began his position in Palm Springs, there was no band room, let alone a fine arts department for students to use.
“I had four walls and nine chairs,” McDaniel said. “I had to borrow benches from the cafeteria and push them back and forth everyday to make sure my students had somewhere to sit.”
Within two years, McDaniel managed to get enough grant money to obtain over 350 instruments for the department, which students are able to use for free when they join band or choir. Along with instruments for the students, the school saw change through McDaniel that can’t be measured in dollars.
“Brian is a change agent,” Michael Grainger, principal of Painted Hills High School said. “I saw the campus change in terms of discipline. He has worked with secular groups to enact social change in the school. It’s one of his remarkable gifts and abilities.”
McDaniel credited this change not only to the student’s involvement in music, but with his involvement with their lives. His mantra with his students is “what would you be willing to do for your own kids?” which has resulted in supportive relationships for students that don’t have any other sense of family in their lives.
He regularly eats breakfast and lunch with his students and works hard to find a place for them in the program, even if they can’t play an instrument or sing.
McDaniel has walked former students of his down the aisle on their wedding day, sat on their hospital bedsides and even placed one of his students in a new home to avoid foster care placement.
“People ask me how many kids I have, and I’ll jokingly say 5,000,” McDaniel said. “If you ask any of these kids if they need anything, they know they can come to me.”
Being raised in Palm Springs like many of his students and dealing with issues of poverty, McDaniel’s experience with divorce and abuse has helped relate to many of his kids in ways other teachers are not able to.
This style of teaching stemmed from McDaniels experience at Long Beach, where he studied under director of music education Daniel Zanutto. McDaniel spoke highly of Zanutto, saying that he has modeled his career after his mentorship.
“Brian was an eager learner, so excited about becoming a newly-minted music teacher,” Zanutto said. “I have this habit of asking students ‘where do you see yourself in 5 years?’ He was quite serious and ambitious about teaching.”
McDaniel described Zanutto as the architect of the band profession, and hopes to follow his career step by step, which includes becoming a professor at the university.
“Long Beach has always been the goal,” McDaniel said. “My wife wants to go back and get a music librarian credential so she can work at the school as a librarian, and me as a professor.”
