Capt. Alden Partridge, U.S. Army (February 12, 1785 - January 17, 1854) was an early Acting Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a pioneer in U.S. military education. A native of Norwich, Vermont, he graduated from West Point in 1806. He spent his entire Army career at the Academy, serving from 1806-1818 as an instructor first of mathematics and then engineering. From 1814-1817 he served as acting superintendent, but was forced to step down due to controversy over his administration. He was forced to resign his commission in 1818.
In 1819, he founded Norwich University in his hometown of Norwich. The school was originally named the "American Literary, Scientific, and Military Academy." The university is now located in Northfield, Vermont, and is the nation's oldest private military college. Norwich University is nicknamed the "Birthplace of ROTC" because it was the first school to offer the Reserve Officers Training Program.
External links
Biography from the United States Military Academy's Mathematics Department (http://www.dean.usma.edu/math/people/rickey/dms/DeptHeads/Partridge.html)
AldenPartridge, (February 12, 1785 - January 17, 1854) was a writer, surveyor, legislator, an early superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and a pioneer in U.S. military education.
Partridge later founded military schools in Virginia, New Hampshire, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Delaware.
One of America's first exercise enthusiasts, Partridge became a strong proponent of physical education as an essential part of school curriculum.
AldenPartridge can be credited as one of the first Americans to use outdoor experience as an integral part of the process of education, thus anticipating the later acceptance of field trips and "outward bound" programs as legitimate educational activities.
AldenPartridge became convinced from considerable experience, "as well as from the nature of the case," that his students derived "more real advantage" and improvement from excursions than from any other activities.
AldenPartridge recognized the need for a curricular flexibility that would provide students with elective opportunities and allow them to pursue an educational program at their own pace, a pedagogical attitude that explains why students ranging from adolescents to veterans of the War of 1812 could be found at his institution in the 1820's.
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