Robert Cardone is one of Wyoming Valley West High School’s culinary and family consumer science teachers. He helps learn basic cooking skills in his culinary class for seniors. 

The freshman take family consumer science as a required class to graduate high school in Pennsylvania, and it must be retaken if they were to fail. While some people may not consider these classes as important as others, they can be much more useful for after high school.

People have argued over if some required classes are useful or not, and while in most cases it depends on the students choices, Mr. Cardone teaches things everyone must know upon getting a job. Examples of this are him teaching students how to write checks, or teaching them how to invest and save their money.

¨Everything we do here students will see in the outside world, and students will see in real life,¨ said Cardone. “I had Mr. Cardone my senior year of high school, and he was the first person to teach me the difference between credit and debit, and why it is so important to start building your credit as soon as you can,” added Nicole McNeils, the school’s journalism teacher and past student of Mr. Cardone.

Mr. Cardone wasn’t always a teacher for the high school, in the past he ran his own restaurant called “The Pizza Mill” which has since been closed down. Cardone now teaches full time. 

¨I was doing both, but it was too many hours in a week, and in order to have the greatest positive impact, I put 100 percent of my efforts into teaching,” Cardone said. “I wanted to make the greatest positive impact with the knowledge and experience that I got from running the restaurant.¨ Cardone continued. ¨It was definitely worth it, I do see the results in students. I think this class has a great impact on getting students ready for the outside world.¨

While his classes are important, Cardone is also fair to his students, and tries to help them the best he can. He will turn assignments into games or competitions for his students. 

  ¨I try to show them the real connection to the outside world and how it affects them when they graduate. I give them real assignments and real examples of what they’ll find in real life.¨ said Cardone.

Mr. Cardone’s business experience makes him a great teacher for family consumer science and culinary. He brings a positive message to his students and the school as a whole.