Partridge is the earliest USMA graduate, USMA
1806, to be honored by being pictured on a postage
stamp (Issued February 12, 1985; U.S.
Scott No.1854) [Dierck 1989].
Norwich was originally founded in 1819 as the
American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy at Norwich,
Vermont, by Capt. Alden Partridge. Partridge was a pioneer in
American education and a graduate and former Superintendent of
West Point. His work in American Military education eventually
led to the Department of Defense recognizing Norwich as the
birthplace of the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) concept.
Partridge strove to educate leaders capable of serving the
nation in either peace or war. The school's name was changed to
Norwich University in 1834 and the campus has been located in
Northfield, Vermont, since 1866. Norwich men and since 1974
Norwich women--by the way Norwich was the first military college
in the nation to admit women cadets--have served in every war
since the Blackhawk War of 1832. Today, its students can seek
commissions in any branch of the armed service or go directly
into civilian pursuits.
In Norwich, Vermont, we find the
following historical marker:
NORWICH UNIVERSITY: The Nation’s Oldest Private
Military College
Founded by Captain Alden Partridge in 1819 as the
American Literary, Scientific and Military Academy at
Norwich, Vermont, Norwich University was relocated to
Northfield, Vermont in 1866. Partridge’s innovative
curriculum combined military, practical, scientific
and liberal instruction. Guided by his educational
principles, Norwich University pioneered in offering
civil engineering, physical education and experiential
learning and was one of the first institutions to
offer instruction in agriculture, modern languages and
political-economy. The Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862
and the 1916 legislation which created the Reserve
Officer’s Training Corps are extensions of
Partridge’s theories of education.
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The first civilian institution of higher
learning in the United States to actually incorporate military
education into its curriculum was the American Literary,
Scientific and Military Academy – now Norwich University.
Capt. Alden Partridge, former superintendent of the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, founded the school in 1819 at
Norwich, Vermont. Modern ROTC traces its heritage back to this
institution.
The citizen-soldier ideal was the driving force
behind Partridge’s educational experiment. Partridge wanted
officers who would be "identified in views, in feelings,
and in interest, with the great body of the community," and
a college that would reconcile the efficiency and discipline
demanded by a regular Army with the republican values and
popular sentiments inherent in the militia system. While most of
the school’s graduates went into the militia, some entered the
regular Army and thereby broadened the education base and
expanded the political outlook of the professional officer
corps.
The college’s curriculum was advanced for its
time and much more diverse than the curriculum at West Point. It
included courses in agriculture and modern languages in addition
to the sciences, liberal arts, and various military subjects.
Field exercises, for which Partridge borrowed cannon and muskets
from the federal and state governments, supplemented classroom
instruction and added an element of realism to the college’s
program of military training.
They took the road through Jericho, back
to Route 5 and into Norwich.
There is some evidence of the roots of Norwich
University roots, dating
to 1819 and founded by Captain Alden Partridge.
Grenville had read that
Appalachian Mountain Club included Partridge in its list
of the top ten
"Greatest Walkers of all Time." Aside from his
walks, he is known for The
Partridge model for education, which is the basis for
today's ROTC
program. His vision for education included a plan for
funding education
by the sale of government lands.
A decade or two later Patridge's plan was brought to
fruition by the
subject of their next quest - Justin Morrill. Following
the main street in
Norwich to the north, Route 132 reaches South Strafford.
At Barret Hall,
they took the right fork and went a few miles to
Strafford and a location
known as "the Upper Village." The Justin
Morrill Homestead is located in
the Upper Village and is another state-owned site. The
homestead
showcases a lifestyle of a renaissance man and author of
the Land Grant
College Act. |
Site Donated By:
A photograph
of Alden Partridge |
In preparing young men and women
with the education and attributes necessary to serve
our country both in and out of uniform, Norwich
University has clearly been ahead of its time since
its founding in 1819. I was fascinated to read, in
preparing to come here today, about Norwich’s
founder, Captain Alden Partridge, and the many
contributions that he made to American higher
education. Some of the things he championed were
controversial at the time. Today they are things we
take for granted. Among the things he championed: the
value of an education in the practical and liberal
arts for the growing number of Americans involved in
such pursuits, the concept of the citizen soldier, the
importance of experience-based education, and the
concept of the land grant system as a means of
expanding access to higher education to more people
across the vast wilderness of our new nation.
Captain Partridge had been trained as a civil
engineer, he had taught at West Point, he had lived
through the War of 1812, and he recognized the ways in
which America was changing. He saw that it was a
growing nation with a rising merchant and commercial
class that required a different model of education
than the one most prevalent at that time which was
primarily based on training young men for the
ministry.
Today we would call him an entrepreneur and a
visionary for his many innovations, and for
understanding that higher education needed to be
widely available in the practical and philosophical
skills that a young America then needed so that its
citizens would be well prepared to fulfill, in his
words, "the duties they owed to themselves, to
their fellow men, and to their country."
Remarks by The Honorable Louis Caldera,
Secretary of the Army, Norwich University Commencement
Address, May 7, 2000. |
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