Melissa Ripepi

Brent Muncy has many roles in life: father, farmer, mechanic, musician. But to the agricultural mechanics students of Madison Southern High School, the most important role he plays is that of teacher. That once-in-a-lifetime teacher. The kind of teacher who changes the trajectory of his students’ lives. 
Students gravitate to Brent, pulled in by a silent understanding that his is a safe place for them. In return, he gives as much of himself to them as possible. They chat about small stuff. He offers class-specific advice on welding and mechanics. They exchange hunting stories, ideas about where to get a part for a car. 
And he comes through for them. Senior Matt Carmack told Brent he needed a new bumper for his ’76 Dodge Ramcharger. Brent pulled steel pieces he got from a metal salvage yard and made Matt’s bumper a class project last year. 
They come to him with the tough stuff, too. He knows their families, their home lives, their histories. Each student is treated as an individual and is given respect without judgment. 
“You don’t know what some of these kids go through,” Brent says. “Some of it is bad. I die for them a little bit every day, but along with all the sad stuff there is some really great stuff, as well.
At the end of each school day, Brent drives 23 miles home to his farm on a winding country road near Richmond. 
“Seems like when you turn up here, all the worries kind of go,” he says of the farm. “It seems silly, but I will come home and take everything in my pockets out so I don’t lose it. And one day I realized I am carrying my school keys around on the farm. And then I thought, ‘You know what? I’m just going to lay them on the table. I’m going to leave school where it is.’”
At the end of the day, he does just that. Brent steps out his back door, into the solitude of Kentucky’s rolling landscape and farms 300 acres. It is his way of re-charging. The land gives back to him what he gives to his students: a place to breathe.

A Place to Breathe