Visiting Harvard University

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We spent Friday afternoon visiting Boston and the Harvard and MIT campuses. First of all, my two boys were not so interested in visiting Harvard and MIT. They had no interests at all in looking at the campus of this very famous universities. As parents, we would always dream of sending our kids to famous and world class schools but it seems my sons have other plans for their future(sigh).

We are always telling our two boys to dream big so this visit was to show them the top two universities in the world namely Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology both located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

There were a lot of students probably going to the campus orientation tours when we went there as seen with a lot of student volunteers bringing incoming freshmens around the campus.

And this is Harvard Yard which is the grassy area of about 25 acres (10 ha), adjacent to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that constitutes the oldest part and the center of the campus of Harvard University.

You can see several buildings scattered in this part of the campus.

At the entrance to the University you can see Harvard Hall.The original Harvard Hall on this site housed the College library, including the books donated by John Harvard, after whom the college and the building were named—all but one of which were destroyed when the building burned in 1764. Rebuilt in 1766, Harvard Hall now houses classrooms.

The University Library more known as The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library is Harvard University's flagship library. Widener serves as the centerpiece of the 15.6 million-volume Harvard University Library system, the largest university library system in the world.

Built with a gift from Eleanor Elkins Widener, it is a memorial to her son, Harry, Class of 1907, an enthusiastic young bibliophile who perished aboard the Titanic.

A popular but unfounded urban legend states that the former requirement that Harvard students pass a swim test in order to graduate was based on his mother's stipulation in her bequest.

Before coming to Boston, I wasn't familiar with The Harvard Statue or what is more known as the Statue of Three Lies.

Located at the very center of the Old Yard is a statue of the university's first benefactor, John Harvard. This monument is a frequent target of pranks, hacks, and humorous decorations. Moreover, Harvard students urinate on the very foot that tourists rub for good luck.

It is called the statue of Three Lies, because of false information about the Statue.

On the stone below the statue it reads:

John Harvard

Founder

1638

One of the biggest show pieces in Harvard Yard, this statue is not actually of John Harvard. When the statue was designed, no pictures of John could be found, so the artists used images of the University's 3rd President instead.

More telling still, the 2nd lie is that John Harvard was not the founder. Mr. Harvard donated a fortune to the school during its fledgling years, so the actual founders named the school after him.

Last, Harvard was actually founded in 1636, two years earlier.

But the best part: most Harvard students, and many faculty members, actually believe these three things to be true. They are set in stone, after all... So much for the idea that going to Harvard makes students smarter!

I think in our case we as parents enjoyed the campus tour more than our two boys.I guess teenage boys have a different idea of spending the last few days of summer break .

Probably spending it touring a university campus is not in their vocabulary.Well at least stepping foot in the campus where John Kennedy and Mark Zuckerberg studied is something to remember if not for my kids then probably for me and hubby.