History class with Mr. Partridge now, well, history. Mr.Guerra has since taken over his position because as of January this year, Mr. Partridge retired from his position. “I haven’t had a fall vacation in years,” Mr. Partridge said. Mr. Partridge began teaching full time at Freedom in 1992, but previously worked as a permanent substitute teacher for ten years. He also spent time in both Ellwood City and Blackhawk school districts as a substitute. Prior to his work as a teacher, Mr. Partridge held a variety of different jobs, including: a camp counselor, a mill inspector for BMW and an Aflac Agent. With the money from all of his part-time jobs, he was able to graduate from college without owing a dime, which is a rare thing to be able to say at this day and age. However, teaching history was always a passion of Mr. Partridge’s. “I had always liked history. I grew up listening to a lot of war stories from World War II,” he said. As a child, Mr. Partridge visited many historical sites, such as Gettysburg and Washington DC. It is something that has interested him his entire life. Any student that has had Mr. Partridge has experienced his dedication to enriching their lives. Often times, he invited presenters from trade schools and other programs to come and talk to the class. He said he likes to do it because it gave kids a break from the class and also gave them information to think about in regards to career preparation. “I don’t think we do enough for Juniors as far as making you aware of what’s out there,” Mr. Partridge said. Mr. Partridge said he is definitely going to miss the students and faculty of Freedom, but he was happy to have had some good memories to hold on to. His favorite memory is the mock trial he used to get a team of eight students to participate in. The group would practice their trial until they eventually performed it at the court house for a competition. Mr. Partridge said this was something he really enjoyed being a part of, but it became too hard to get eight kids in a room together at the same time in order to practice for the competition. Looking back, Mr. Partridge said he was pleased to spend his teaching career at Freedom. He has also been especially fond of the teachers in his department as well as many other members of the faculty. “I didn’t look at it as a job. If you like what you’re doing, you’ll never work a day in your life because it won’t seem like work,” Mr. Partridge said.