RESEDA : Adult School Will Honor Student, 40

For April McKeever, who couldn’t even sound out the simplest words until she was 38, illiteracy is just another word for humiliation.

McKeever, now 40, and reading at about a third-grade level, will be honored as Student of the Year at the Reseda Adult School commencement Thursday.

Not being able to read meant being humiliated every time she applied for a job, she said. Even working as a motel maid was off limits to her: a manager rejected her saying she might not be able to read the signs on guest’s doors.

“I’ll tell you what, when you can’t read or write you don’t have any initiative, you don’t want to do anything,” said McKeever, a Northridge resident. “It’s very hard to understand what a person goes through when they can’t read. People will hurt you very bad.”

Today, McKeever said each new word she memorizes from the dictionary or spells correctly on a test boosts her confidence. Learning to read has changed her life, she said. Recently, she got married and quit smoking, and she hopes her success will rub off on her two children, who are also dropouts.

McKeever is one of 10,000 San Fernando Valley adults enrolled in the Reseda school, a branch of Los Angeles Unified School District, said Principal Martin Conroy. The school provides a chance for adult dropouts to get eighth-grade and high school diplomas and GED certificates by offering night classes at Reseda High School and other satellite locations.

On Thursday, about 150 adults will be awarded high school diplomas or General Equivalency Diploma certificates, and another 64 will receive eighth-grade diplomas, at a ceremony at the Reseda High auditorium.

McKeever, a self-described slow learner who left school in her mid-teens, is a long way from receiving her diploma, but she will be recognized at Thursday’s commencement for being “an inspiration to other students,” Conroy said.

“She has a lot of self-motivation,” said Marge Sopp, McKeever’s reading teacher. “She sounds words and is so pleased with herself . . . students like her make teaching worthwhile.”