Teachers of history, the country over, have for the past ten years been grateful that the American Historical Association assumed that history for the secondary schools offered problems in which its members were vitally interested. In all of our schools to-day some effect of the revolution wrought by the report of the Committee of Seven may be observed. It was not going far afield, then, when the same association, observing the heterogeneous condition existing also in the presentation of history in the elementary schools, should have proffered some assistance. At the Chicago meeting of the association, therefore, teachers of history from elementary and high schools, from normal schools and colleges, were invited to a conference on the topics: (1) Some suggestions for a course of study in history for the elementary schools; and (2) the preparation most desirable for the teacher of history in these schools. Following the discussion, the resolution was adopted that it was deemed desirable that a committee should be appointed to make out a program in history for the elementary schools and consider other closely-allied topics. In response, the Committee of Eight was selected to consider the problems suggested and prepare a report. Care was exercised in making up the committee to secure a majority who should be in actual touch with the work of the elementary schools. As originally composed, the committee consisted of three superintendents of schools, two teachers in normal schools, and two from the colleges. It cannot be said, therefore, that the report finally presented after four years of labor is the result of the working out of fine-drawn theories on the part of college men. In fashioning the report, present conditions were kept steadily in mind. Looking towards some uniformity in the program for history in our elementary schools, due praise must always be accorded to the report of the Madison Conference on History, Civil Government and Economics, which was published in 1893, and to the supplementary report of the Committee of Seven. In these reports we find the first significant declarations that history is entitled to a place of dignity in all secondary and elementary school programs. Some two hundred superintendents of schools in different parts of the country have submitted for the consideration of the committee what they believed to be the best programs, and many elementary history teachers have been consulted on various features of the report. Opportunity for discussing the most important phases was given in a number of teachers’ associations in various sections of the country. Through these letters and discussions the committee has obtained many practical suggestions.