I

Dr. Pedro T. Orata

NOBILITY PROGRAM
URDANETA CITY UNIVERSITY
 MODULE 4
Learning from Dr. Pedro T. Orata

Objectives
At the end of the topic, you are expected to:

a. Complete a timeline on significant events in Dr. Pedro T. Orata’s life;

b. Reflect on the life lessons on Dr. Pedro T. Orata’s life in relation
to your own contexts as students; and
c. Create a response on the theme “Learning from Dr. Pedro T. Orata.”

Topic Outline
Lesson 1: The Early Years
Lesson 2: Orata’s Education in the US
Lesson 3: Dr. Pedro Orata’s contributions to education

Overview
Who are the people we admire? What are they known for? What are their
characteristics? These three questions may sound simple. In actuality, the
answers to these queries reveal complex truths about ourselves. It is said
that the people we admire and why we do so reveal the values we hold and the
accomplishments we aspire to.

If that is so, it is imperative that we are introduced to the man who

had revolutionized the educational landscape during his time and started a
legacy known as the Urdaneta City University. Through this module, we are
introduced to Dr. Pedro T. Orata, the founding Father of UCU, whom we will
get to know better through this and the other modules in the subject.

2 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program

Activating Prior Knowledge
In the previous module, you learned about
the university’s four core values: integrity,
competence, teamwork, and transcendence. Do
you agree that these values are important to
help you achieve your dreams in life? How
will these enable you to help others and your
community?

Let’s see what else you can learn about

our university in the lessons that follow.

3
Getting to know Dr. Pedro T.
Orata
Read this section and get to know the founder of
the Urdaneta City University and the Father of
the Barrio High School, Dr. Pedro T. Orata.

The E
I arly Years

In Philippine education, the name

Dr. Pedro T. Orata is associated with
academic excellence. One who championed
education for people from all walks of
life throughout life.

He did not set out to excel

academically. “My little success in
school is due to sheer hard work and
little else. My IQ is barely average,”
he confessed. Again and again, we will
see how his hard work served him in
good stead throughout his life. His
“barely average” IQ, as he termed it
that did not rely on rote memory alone,
but practical applications made him a
lifelong advocate of education.

Dr. Pedro T. Orata was born on

February 27, 1899 in Bactad, Urdaneta
to Numeriana Tamesis-Arata and Candido
Arata.

Dr. Orata admitted that he changed

his family name because of teachers’
practice before calling on their
students to recite based on their
family names, which were arranged
alphabetically. Arata was too close to
the top, making him feel anxious during
class. So he first changed it to Urata,
but it was too far back in the alphabet.
He eventually used Orata, which put him
in the middle of the list, allowing him
time to prepare if he would be called in
class.

At an early age, death left its

mark on his family. His older brother
and younger brother died when Pedro
was
still young. This left only him and his
younger sister Victorina as siblings who
grew into adulthood.

4 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program

Source: UCU Archives
 Life was hard for the family.
The young Pedro had to help out
his parents on the farm as well
as household chores. He had to
sell vegetables at a young age,
carrying these on a basket,
walking several kilometers over
rice paddies even when he started
studying Grade I in Bactad.

Classes in Bactad were only

up to Grade III. Hence, Pedro
had to walk four kilometers to
Urdaneta to enroll in Grade IV.
Reenactment Unfortunately, he failed.

This disappointment spurred

his Father to make him work
harder on the farm because Pedro
did not like school, as seen in
his failing the grade. From five
o’clock in the morning to late
night, Pedro’s life was filled
with household chores, taking
care of the farm animals, and
harrowing and plowing the field.

Despite this setback, Pedro

6 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program

Reenactment

persevered. He enrolled again in Grade IV

and passed.

Since no schools were offering Grade V

in Urdaneta, Pedro had to go to Binalonan,
the town next to Urdaneta, to attend
classes. He walked for eleven kilometers
over rice paddies and three others from his
barrio, setting off to Binalonan on Sunday
afternoon and returning to Bactad on Friday
afternoon after class. The following year,
intermediate grades were offered in
Urdaneta, and Pedro finished his elementary
course there in 1916.

After finishing Grade VI, he enrolled in

the College of Agriculture in Los Banos.
However, he failed Botany. Coupled with his
homesickness, Pedro decided to go home,
finished Grade VII in Urdaneta, and enrolled
in the only public high school in Pangasinan
at that time, the Pangasinan Provincial High
School, which is located in Lingayen, the
capital of the province.

Reenactment

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 His younger sister Victorina offered to
help him. She completed Grade IV in Bactad,
but she decided to stop schooling from
taking in boarders in Lingayen. She cooked
for them and washed their clothes. From
1916 to 1920, Pedro and his sister walked
from Lingayen to Bactad and back again
several times.

In his words, Pedro recalled,

Our provisions—rice and wood—had to

be taken to Lingayen by my father in
a carreton drawn by our old carabao.
At first, I rode in the carreton to
Lingayen, but I discovered that I
could walk faster than the carabao.
Besides, I pitied the carabao.

8 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program

 Reenactment

The family’s sacrifices paid off.

Among 99 graduates, Pedro finished
high school as valedictorian of his
Class of 1920.

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 Orata’s
II Educa tion in the US

Upon her Manong’s graduation,

Victorina had a surprise for the family.
She proudly brought out her alcansia, a
bamboo tube with a slit where she dropped
the coins she saved doing laundry work in
Lingayen. The amount was enough to buy a
ticket to the United States.

Reenactment

10 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program


Arriving there in June, Orata
worked grueling hours fixing railways
in Montana. He saved enough to enroll
at the University of Illinois in
September 1920.
Feeling homesick, Orata was excited
when he received his first letter from
home. However, the news was not
good. His father died. Distraught, he
started making plans to go back to the
Philippines. However, different couples
who had taken him under their wing
advised him to stay in the US and
finish his studies.
So Orata poured his grief into work.
He got a job in a dormitory doing odd
jobs like washing the dishes. In an
autobiography, Orata laid out his daily
routine on weekdays: He got up at five
o’clock in the morning and worked until
8:30, then left to catch his 9 a.m.
class. He worked again from 12 noon to
2 p.m. then hurried to attend his 2:30
p.m. class. From 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.,
he again worked. Arriving in his
quarters after nine o’clock in the
evening,
he devoted his focus to studying his
lessons.
Photo Courtesy: The Illio (University of Illinois)
On weekends, Orata would accept odd
jobs—washing windows, mowing lawns, and
cleaning homes. During summers, to save
on bus fare, Orata would walk more than
one and a half hours from his job back
to his room – and this after clocking
in eleven hours of work.
When he was not busy with work,
Orata studied for his classes. The
result was that, after four years of
study, he graduated his degree in
education at the University of Illinois
at Urbana “with final honors.”
He continued his studies, earning
his master’s degree in 1925 at the
University of Illinois and his Ph.D. at
Ohio State University in 1927. Because
his dissertation revealed the flaws
of the “theory of identical elements”
advanced by the famous educator Dr.
Edward Lee Thorndike, Orata received
positive feedback. He graduated with
honor citations, and his dissertation
was published by the Ohio University
Press.
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12 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program
 III
Dr. Pedro Or ata’s C ontribu tions to Education

Dr. Pedro T. Orata went back to the

Philippines in 1927, bringing his wife
Vinda Adkins, who perished during the
Japanese occupation. He taught for less
than a semester at the Bayambang Normal
School (now Pangasinan State University),
then transferred to the Philippine Normal
School, where he taught for another
semester. He became the youngest division
superintendent when he was assigned to
Isabela and was transferred to Sorsogon,
serving there in 1931-1934.

Photo Courtesy of Joanne Lorraine Puga

Source: Orata, P. et al. (1938) Demoracy and Indian Education

Vol. 1. U.S. Deparment of the Interior - Office of Indian
Affairs

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 He returned to the US as a member of
the staff of Ohio State University from
1934-1936. He accepted his assignment as
principal of an experimental community
school in an Indian Reservation in Kyle,
South Dakota. During his stay, many of what
he learned were important seeds of what he
will apply in his subsequent posts. He was
further assigned to the US Office of
Education in Washington until 1941.
Orata returned to the Philippines to
work as Technical Assistant of the National
Council of Education. However, with the
outbreak of World War II, he decided to go
back to Urdaneta, where he met his wife,
Pilar.
After the war, he was tasked by the
Americans to reestablish schools in
14 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program
Urdaneta. Together with lawyers, dentists,
engineers, and other professionals, Orata
reorganized the elementary schools and
opened the Urdaneta Community High School.
This was the first public high school in
the Philippines, which was established
outside the provincial capital.
They used the old bombed-out church with
no roof as a classroom. Three hundred fifty
students and 15 teachers divided the space
into different year levels. There were no
books nor chairs, with the students sitting
on floors. When they graduated, the seniors
received handwritten diplomas.
With things organized back home,
Orata was called back to Manila to work
for the Department of Public Instruction.
With his experiences and work ethic,
Orata was
 Photo Courtesy of Management Information Systems, Urdaneta City Archives

invited by Unesco as an educational expert difficulty in financing their studies.

and was asked to study and report on the
Thai educational system. He was later
Recognizing his influences in the field
called a program specialist in the Unesco
of education, the Ramon Magsaysay Award
headquarters in Paris until his retirement
Foundation presented him with an award for
in 1960.
public service in 1971.
He was invited to be the dean of the
Finally, the boy who walked kilometers
Graduate School of the Philippine Normal
across rice paddies to attend classes, who
College in 1960 and stayed there until
failed in his classes but later emerged as
1964.
an honor student, who changed his last name
just so he would not be called on to recite
In 1966, Dr. Orata founded the Urdaneta
first in class but who became an authority
Community College, now known as the
on educational innovations, who worked for
Urdaneta City University, one of the
hours to support his schooling, would now be
country’s first community colleges. He
known for his contributions in Philippine
served as its president up to his death in
education.
1989 without receiving his salary and
allowance, opting to have these given to
students who had
15
 Activity 4.1

Module Quiz
Direction: Match the date with a significant event in the life of Dr. Orata. Write only
the letter of the correct answer on the answer sheet (Offline Learning) or key in the
answer on the online quiz in iKonek (Online Learning).

Column A Column B

a. Dr. Pedro T. Orata established the Urdaneta

1. February 27, 1899 Community College.

b. He finished his PhD at the Ohio State

2. 1916 University.

3. 1920 c. He served in UNESCO.

4. 1924 d. Dr. Pedro T. Orata was born.

5. 1925 e. He graduated valedictorian in high school.

f. He won the Ramon Magsaysay award for public

6. 1948-1960 service.

g. He became principal of a community school in

7. 1960-1964 South Dakota.

8. 1964 h. He worked at the Philippine Normal University.

i. He earned his BSE at the University of

9. 1966 Illinois with final honors.

10. 1971 j. He finished Grade VI.

k. He completed his master’s degree at the

University of Illinois.

Activity 4.2

Collaborative Appreciation
View the accompanying video for this module. As you do so, try to see the accomplishments
Dr. Orata made and the challenges he had to overcome. Set what you have learned with the
details in the previous section on Dr. Orata’s life.

After watching the video, pair up with a classmate, then answer the questions below:

1. “Grit” is a term that describes how a person perseveres and does not give up despite
obstacles. How did Dr. Orata show grit?
2. Had there been instances in your life when you showed grit? Share this with your
groupmates.

Post your answers to numbers 1 and 2 in our discussion bin (Online Learning) or write them
on a separate sheet and submit it to me (Offline Learning).

16 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program

3. Assess each other based on each other’s performance in this activity using the rubric
below:

Rubric for Peer Assessment

(Adapted from iRubric)

Criteria Needs improvement Acceptable Excellent

(1 point) (3 points) (5 points)

Involvement Minimally involved Involved in the work Extremely involved

in the work. and contributed to in the work, took
Submitted own work the output through a leadership role,
but otherwise not comments and and made
actively involved. suggestions. significant
contributions to the
output.
Respect Ignored or Respected other Actively sought
disrespected other member’s opinions, the other member’s
member’s opinions. accepted them and opinions and ensured
made modifications. that input was
incorporated into the
output. Gave positive
feedback and/or
encouragement.
Attitude Displayed a negative Displayed a compliant Displayed a positive
attitude about the attitude about the attitude about the
assignment and assignment and assignment and
working with a working with a working with a
partner. partner. partner. Fostered
communication and
staying on task.

Total Points:

This peer assessment shall be part of your

grade in class participation (15 points).

Assignment 1

Learner Response
Task description: As a UCU student, you are tasked to make a 1- to 3-minute video response
for the university community on the theme “Learning from Dr. Pedro T. Orata.” If possible
in your circumstances, form a group with 5-7 students as members. If not, you can work on
your own. The video response will be screened as part of UCU’s campaign to celebrate the
legacy of Dr. Orata and select videos will be uploaded in our social media accounts.

In the video response, you as a student will complete the statements below:
1. From Dr. Pedro T. Orata, I learned that…
2. Because of this, I will…
3. As a future (insert your future profession), I will…

The video response will be evaluated using the rubric adapted from www.rcampus.com

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Rubric for Evaluating the Video Response
Criteria Excellent Good Fair Poor
(4 points) 3 points) (2 points) (1 point)

Content of The video includes all The video includes The video does The video lacks most
response responses asked in all responses asked not include all responses asked in the
the task stated in an in the task, but responses asked in task. These are stated
organized fashion. it is not well- the task and these in an unorganized
organized. are stated in an fashion.
unorganized fashion.

Work quality The work done exceeds The work was done Work is done with Work is done with little
and effort expectations and shows with good effort fair effort, but effort, quality is not
the
that the students are that shows what the quality is still what the students are
proud of their work. students are capable not what the group capable of. It is
Maximum effort was of. It is evident is capable of. It evident that the work
put into the video that the group put is evident that the was rushed and little
presentation. effort into the work was rushed. time was spent on the
presentation. final product. Work is
incomplete.

Presentation The students speak The students speak There are several No preparation was done
clearly and the clearly and present confusing moments for the presentation and
audience can tell that the information and the responses the responses that are
the group understands expected. Video is presented are presented lack much of
and knows the what is adequate. not completely what is expected.
asked in the task. It shared during the
is evident that the presentation. It is
group practiced what obvious the group
would be said/done. did not rehearse
much prior to
taping.

Style/ The presentation has The presentation is The presentation The presentation lacks
Mechanics great creativity and clear and logical lacks style and a clear understanding
style, and is not just with very few creativity; presents of the subject matter
a list of answers. mistakes. Good, adequate response and has many errors
Viewers were WOWed. clear presentation, but in a way that or leaves out vital
but lacks some does not WOW the information.
creativity or viewer.
clarity.

Valuing The video response The video response The video response The video response does
highlights highlights highlights not clearly highlight
appreciation for life appreciation appreciation for appreciation for life
lessons on Dr. Pedro for life lessons life lessons on Dr. lessons on Dr. Pedro T.
T. Orata’s, exceeding on Dr. Pedro T. Pedro T. Orata’s, Orata.
expectations. Orata’s, and meets stated in a limited
expectations. manner.

View the sample video from the members of the Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program team so
you will be guided regarding your output. This is uploaded to our course site.

Write a brief reflective, collaborative essay with your groupmates (not more than one
page of a short bond paper) on the difficulties you encountered in completing the task
and the insights you gained from doing this requirement. Post this in our discussion
forum and comment on at least one submission. This essay will not be graded but will be
part of the course requirements.

Should you have questions regarding this activity, do not hesitate to ask me. Check our
course guide for my contact details.

18 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program

Summary
• Dr. Pedro T. Orata made lots of personal
sacrifices to achieve his dreams. With all
his accomplishments, he gave back generously
to the community by sharing his expertise
and resources.

• Dr. Orata spearheaded community education

and is known as the Father of the Barrio
High Schools.

• Dr. Orata established the Urdaneta

Community College in 1966. This is now known
as the Urdaneta City University.

References
Borlaza, G. (1984). The life and work of
Pedro T. Orata: An advocate of
education for all, for life and
throughout life. Manila: Philippine
Christian University.

Dr. Pedro T. Orata with Urdaneta Community

College staff. (n.d.). Photo
courtesy of Dr. Katherine Nillo
(personal collection).

Fernandez, E. (2010). The community school

and the mother tongue: Dr. Pedro
T. Orata on multilingual education.
Retrieved from bit.ly/36jhxvj

Orata, P. (n.d.). My life and work, mostly

work! Unpublished paper. Archives of
the Urdaneta City University,
Philippines.

Dr. Pedro T. Orata receiving the Ramon

Magsaysay award. (October 18, 1971).
Pammadayaw gapu iti serbisio publiko.
[Photographs]. Bannawag magazine,
cover page, pp. 12-13.

Yearbook pictures of Pedro T. Orata. (1925).

The Illio (Vol. 31). University of
Illinois. Retrieved from bit.ly/3eLg04N

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