Butcher: Are The Benefits Worth The Stress?

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Butcher, also known as MMSTC, is a half-day high school program where students from Lake Shore, as well as other schools,  go for their 1st-3rd hours to study advanced science, math, and technology classes. Students attending Butcher are given an intense workload, express high levels of stress, and most have lower grades, if not failing some classes, that they would normally excel in at Lake Shore. 

Students attending Butcher receive hours upon hours of homework each night, not leaving time to complete other tasks and activities, such as sports practices.

Ella Mainhardt, a sophomore currently attending Butcher, said, “I do think it’s too much homework, especially when we get it every night from every class. So, it all just piles on top of each other and it’s not easy stuff. Sometimes you have to ask people for help and everything.”

Another sophomore attending Butcher, Adelia Nasir, also commented saying, “Probably like 4-5 hours every day.”

A sophomore who dropped out of Butcher, Joey Quinn, said, “A lot, way too much it’s overwhelming. I would say three things of homework a night, about 5 (assignments) overall every night.”

Another difficult aspect of attending Butcher is how fast they move on from subject to subject. Quinn stated, “How fast they move on from subjects, they would give you like a week to learn a math subject, give you a test on it, and then if you don’t get it they’re just done with it.”

Sophomore, Marissa White said, “The intense workload, the fact that they expect us to work faster just because we’re smarter.”

The difficult workload along with how fast they move on from subjects greatly takes a toll on the students’ grades. Mainhardt commented saying, “I have all C’s and maybe a B at Butcher, and at Lake Shore, I have all A’s and one B.”

Quinn also mentioned, “They were like D’s and C’s and my Lake Shore grades were all A’s.”

On the other hand, attending Butcher does have some benefits along with the negatives. Nasir said, “Some pros are the benefits it can get you for college and a higher GPA at your home school. Some cons are waking up really early in the morning, the homework, and the mental health load it takes on you.”

Mainhardt expressed, “Pros are it will prepare you for a lot of the stuff you do in college and in your future life it helps you learn a lot about research and writing papers on that. Some cons are that it can make you very stressed out.”

In the end, while Butcher does help students get into a better college, is it worth the immense anxiety, stress, and work?