There’s nothing worse than summer reading in high school.

Just when you wanted to put all the books away for the summer, along comes the mandatory summer reading list.

Every year at Canisius High School, even before stepping foot in the school for the first day of freshman year, we had summer reading mandates. They weren’t suggestions or recommendations — they were mandates.

Fast forward to today’s high schoolers, and they are “encouraged” to read during the summer, but not expected to.

It may work for some, since there are always motivated pupils out there, but summer reading should be a mandate of every class, including those entering as freshmen.

As I said, not many students enjoy the reading-in-the-summer part, but there’s a lot about high school that high schoolers don’t enjoy.

The reason I’m writing about this is because of something I caught in our newspaper recently.

There was a brief submission from the district explaining that summer reading was back, after almost falling victim to state budget cuts. The report goes on to explain that “the Lockport City School District found a low-cost way to keep the program up and running.”

They say it works like this:

• Students read a book of their choice and complete a project.

• They take the book and project to the Lockport Public Library and meet with a teacher-evaluator. The evaluator approves the project after a brief interview, and successful students earn two points on their first-quarter English grade.

• Students who read a second book and successfully complete a project will earn another three points.

The following are projects that students may complete to earn points” “Reading Response Log, Tech Project – Power Point, timeline or brochure on the computer; Main Idea Collage, Poem, Prequel or Sequel, Pack a Project – filling a container with objects that relate to the book; Editorial Cartoon, Diorama.”

“The hands-on book projects were restored this year by popular demand of the students themselves. Last summer students were asked to keep a simple reading response log, but many students preferred making or building collages and dioramas or writing their own endings.”

I understand teachers are now volunteering their time to ensure this program remains, and I applaud them for that, but there’s a way to do it with no cost at all.

Local schools should require reading as students enter each grade level, even if it’s elementary school. Obviously the reading requirements would be grade-level appropriate. But mandated is the way to go.

What seems to work is to mandate two or three titles and then throw in a reader’s choice book from a list of 100 classics. For example: A student entering ninth grade is required to read “Lord of the Flies,” “Of Mice and Men” and one “grab bag” choice of their own from a list of maybe 100 books that district teachers deem worthy of readers at that level.

Then, when school resumes in September, all students are on the same page — literally. Teachers can craft lessons and discussion on the two books read and then test based on those two books, with maybe a last-question short essay on the book of choice for each student.

What you have then is some consistency.

The test, given within the first month of school, would be mandatory because the reading was mandatory. No extra credit.

Heck, if you want to make an extra credit designation, create a scale of a point or two for every book the student reads beyond the two mandated and one “choice” book. That deserves some extra credit because it is “extra.”

When I was in high school, we had the required reading lists for the next grade level given to us within the last week of classes. Entering freshman year, we had the lists mailed to us. No real cost there except photocopies and maybe stamps.

In addition, area bookstores were supplied with lists to keep on hand and so were area libraries.

The difference between then and now was the reading was required, not an option for some extra credit and not only after a student fills a box with items that relate to the book.

Aside from disseminating the lists, there’s no cost. I can only imagine there was a cost before, or stipend, for teachers to sit in the library and discuss the option reading and related projects. What a joke. No wonder it was cut or almost cut from the budget.

No teachers are needed during the summer. No stipends or ways to bump up overall pay. No budget burdens.

Districts need to mandate a few titles per grade level, throw in a “reader’s choice” and then have a test.

No poems, collages or dioramas on what the book meant.

A test.

Tim Marren is managing editor of the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal. Contact him at tim.marren@lockportjournal.com or 439-9222.