Nobility Program

II Dr. Pedro T. Orata NOBILITY PROGRAM URDANETA CITY UNIVERSITY Introduction 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. Photo Courtesy of Bannawag Magazine MODULE 2 Learning from Dr. Pedro T. Orata Photo Courtesy of Dr. Katherine Nillo 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 OBJECTIVES that is now known as the Urdaneta City University. Through this module, we are At the end of the topic, the students are expected to: introduced to Dr. Pedro T. Orata. a. Complete a timeline on significant events in Dr. Pedro T. Orata’s life; b. Express the life lessons on Dr. Pedro T. Orata; c. Create a video on the theme “Learning from Dr. Pedro T. Orata.” 2 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program Urdaneta City University 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 EarlyI Years In Philippine education, the name Dr. Pedro T. Orata is associated with academic excellence in Philippine education. One who championed education for people in 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. 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 the practice of teachers before to call 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 in case 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. Source: UCU Archives 4 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program Urdaneta City University 5 Reenactment Despite this setback, Pedro persevered. He enrolled again in Grade IV and passed. Since there were no schools 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 together with 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. His younger sister Victorina offered to Life was hard for the family. The young Pedro had to help out his parents in the farm as well as household chores. At a young age, he had to sell vegetables, 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 so Pedro had to walk four kilometers to the town of Urdaneta to enroll in Grade IV. Reenactment Unfortunately, he failed. This disappointment spurred his father to make him work harder in the farm because Pedro Reenactment did not seem to 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 doing household chores, taking care of the farm animals, and harrowing and plowing the field. 6 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program Urdaneta City University 7 help him. She completed Grade IV in Bactad, but she decided to stop schooling so that she can take 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. Reenactment The family’s sacrifices paid off. Among 99 graduates, Pedro finished high school as valedictorian of his Class of 1920. 8 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program Urdaneta City University 9 Orata’sII Education in the US Upon her Manong’s graduation, Victorina had a surprise for the family. She proudly brought out her “alcansiaan”, a bamboo tube with a slit where she Photo Courtesy: The Illio (University of Illinois) dropped the coins she saved doing laundry work in Lingayen. The amount was enough to buy a ticket to the United States. Arriving there in June, Orata On weekends, Orata would accept odd worked grueling hours fixing railways in jobs—washing windows, mowing lawns, and Montana. He saved enough to enroll at cleaning homes. During summers, to save the University of Illinois in September on bus fare, Orata would walk more than 1920. one and a half hours from his job back to his room – and this after clocking Feeling homesick, Orata was excited in eleven hours of work. when he received his first letter from home. But the news was not When he was not busy with work, good. His father died. Distraught, he Orata studied for his classes. The started making plans to go back to the result was that, after four years of Philippines. But different couples who study, he graduated his degree in had taken him under their wing advised Education at the University of Illinois him to stay in the US and finish his at Urbana “with final honors.” studies. He continued his studies, earning So Orata poured his grief in work. his master’s degree in 1925 at the He got a job in a dormitory. In an University of Illinois, and his PhD autobiography, Orata laid out his daily at the Ohio State University in 1927. routine on weekdays: He got up at five Because his dissertation revealed o’clock in the morning and worked until the flaws of the “theory of identical 8:30, then left to catch his 9 a.m. elements” advanced by the famous class. He worked again from 12 noon to educator Dr. Edward Lee Thorndike, 2 p.m. then hurried to attend his 2:30 Orata received positive feedback. He p.m. class. From 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., he graduated with honor citations, and his again worked. Arriving in his quarters dissertation was published by the Ohio after nine o’clock in the evening, he University Press. devoted his focus studying his lessons. Reenactment 10 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program Urdaneta City University 11 Dr. Pedro Orata’sIII Contributions to Education Dr. Pedro T. Orata went back to the Philippines in 1927, bringing with him 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 his post in 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 12 Dr. Pedro T. Orata Nobility Program Urdaneta City University 13 Photo Courtesy of Management Information Systems, Urdaneta City Archives He returned to the US as member of Urdaneta. Together with lawyers, dentists, his experiences and work ethic, Orata was these given to students who had difficulty in the staff of Ohio State University from engineers, and other professionals, Orata invited by Unesco as an educational expert financing their studies. 1934-1936, and accepted his assignment as reorganized the elementary schools and and was asked to study and report on the principal of an experimental community opened the Urdaneta Community High School. Thai educational system. He was later Recognizing his influences in the field school in an Indian Reservation in Kyle, This was the first public high school in the called as program specialist in the Unesco of education, the Ramon Magsaysay Award South Dakota. Many of what he learned during Philippines which was established outside headquarters in Paris until his retirement Foundation presented him with an award for his stay there were important seeds of what the provincial capital. in 1960.

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