By Lora Oehlberg

Town Crier Editorial Intern

It’s no surprise that Nancy Gill calls herself a “self-described education junkie.” Gill has worked for over 30 years in education, teaching at public, private and experimental schools at all levels. In the fifth edition of her 1985 book “A Parent’s Guide to School Selection,” Gill updates the information about local public and private schools, as well as including a look at recent education issues.

“When I started doing this, in the mid-’80s, people were concerned that there was not enough accountability,” said Gill, who is also director of the Writing Center at Foothill College. “Now we’re concerned that testing’s gone crazy to the point where teachers and students are rebelling against high-stakes testing.”

Gill grew up in Los Altos, graduating from Los Altos High School. After teaching at a school in Solvang, she returned to her hometown and has since taught at several local public and private schools.

“We realized, in moving back to the same neighborhood, that things had really changed, and that parents were panicking over school selection. When I was growing up everyone went to public, and some Catholic kids went to Catholic school,” Gill said.

Gill’s book stresses the need to relax about school selection, and to choose based on a child’s needs. The book’s “Four Families” section tells the story of four different families’ experiences in educating their children, examples of how there is no one school that is right for all children, even children from the same family.

“Parents are in hysteria that if they don’t make the right choice, they’ll ruin their child’s chances forever,” Gill said. “I try to get people to relax a little bit since there are a lot of schools out there. Children will turn out the way they’ll turn out; in the end public or private won’t change much.”

Gill will be giving a talk about her book and local education issues at Linden Tree Children’s Records and Books at 7:30 p.m., tomorrow.