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ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY.

To Rev. L. Van Bokkelen, LL. D.,

State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Rev. and Dear Sir :

As President of the Board of Commissioners of Public In-
struction of Ann Arundel County, Md., I beg leave to sub-
mit the following report of our labors, and the operations of
our school system within the Coanty over which our super-
vision extends. The whole number of Public Schools in our
Comity is 44, all of which are in successful operation. The
first district contains ten, all of .which are supplied with
teachers. The second and third districts contain eleven each,
and the fourth twelve. All these schools are in good work-
ing order. The number of pupils in each district is as fol-
lows : the 1st has one hundred and fifty; the 2d, one hun-
dred and forty-six; the 3d, three hundred and forty; the
4th has three hundred and fifty-eight; the two schools in
Annapolis, three hundred and fifty. Total number of pu-
pils, 1344.

Although education has ever been regarded among all civ-
ilized nations, as absolutely essential to the welfare of the
State and the advancement of the people, it was for a long
period the privilege of the favored few only, to acquire a
thorough intellectual training. Education has proved itself
the most powerful element in the civilization of nations, and
as mankind progressed in knowledge, their institutions be-
came more liberal, their laws assumed a wiser and more im-
partial aspect, and the administration of their governments
grew more humane. There was a period when it was thought
that the masses were happier without any instruction; for it
was contended that if the common people were educated they
would become dissatisfied with the position Providence had
allotted to them in this life, that they would abandon the
various industrial pursuits in which they were engaged and
aspire to something not suited to them as a class. When
this erroneous view was forced to give way before a more en-
lightened and just public sentiment, it was stoutly main-
tained that the masses should be educated to such an extent
only, that they might be able to read the scriptures and join
in the public worship of God. At a still later period, it was
thought, that it might be allowable to educate the people so
far, that they might be able to write their own names and
have a slight knowledge of Arithmetic. Even then it was
found, that education did not spoil the people, for it was man-
ifest that they labored more cheerfully and to better advan-
tage, because they had some intelligence. Thus education,
like every other noble enterprise, worked its way amid diffi-
culties, surmounted the most formidable obstacles, dissipated