Horton is a Greenwich native who grew up in Riverside and now lives near Binney Park in Old Greenwich. Bob is returning to his journalistic roots. He started many years ago as City Hall reporter for the Torrington Register in northwest Connecticut and then moved to Washington, D.C. to write for States News Service. While in Washington he covered stories for papers in Connecticut and Alaska, and wrote a weekly political column that ran in several Connecticut papers.
Horton moved back to Greenwich in the late '80s. His family has generations-deep Greenwich history. His great-grandfather was an oyster fisherman on Long Island Sound and his grandfather was the town's tax assessor for many years. Both of his children graduated from the Greenwich public school system, and his wife Robin is a graphic designer and author of urbangardensweb.com, a blog that explores gardening and design in small spaces.
Needing to make a real living, Bob gave up journalism and pursued a career in marketing. He worked many years for Burson-Marsteller, a public relations agency, and was recently head of brand marketing for Merrill Lynch. He now works in commercial real estate in New York City.
Horton's column is scheduled to run Fridays in Greenwich Time.
Here Is Mr Horton's First Column:
BOB HORTON: Where's the uproar over test scores?
In the most recent state standardized test scores, the Greenwich school district placed 40th out of 164, about as close to the middle as to the top. The middle is not a comfortable place for anyone, particularly anyone in Greenwich.
Standardized tests are just one yardstick of a school's performance, and arguably not the best one. After all, we want our schools to produce students who think independently and have had a chance to explore a wide variety of intellectual pursuits -- things not easily measured by standardized testing.
Another way of evaluating schools is through their budget and staffing priorities. Where do they spend money? What are they doing to prepare students to compete against, not just other Americans, but workers across the globe?
So putting aside the decline in test scores, let's compare two programs, both of which have received considerable recognition in recent years: Greenwich High School's football teams and the school orchestras.
I'm a big fan of GHS football -- the Cardinals have won numerous conference and league titles and are multiple winners of the state championship. If the team found itself with a so-so record, you can bet there would be changes made. Thankfully, that's not likely to happen anytime soon, judging from the resources put into the program.
The 46 boys on the varsity football team have a head coach and seven assistant coaches, according to Greenwich Cardinals' Web site. The JV team has two coaches .....
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