This article outlines the history of American education mainly during the years following the Pearl Harbor attack, the incident that raised the national morale in the war effort. Immediately after the attack, John W. Studebaker, U. S. Commissioner of Education, organized the U. S. Office of Education Wartime Commission to adjust educational agencies to wartime needs and also launched the magazine Education for Victory whose purpose was chiefly to inform schools of the proposed policies and programs of the governmental agencies and to call for cooperation with the U. S. Army. At the same time, then President Franklin Roosevelt gave the State of the Union Address, in which he emphasized the urgent need of “speedy” and “efficient” wartime production in all military industries. Moreover, military personnel exerted pressure upon educators so that high school students could acquire basic knowledge in mathematics, chemistry, engineering, and other sciences, which were needed for the prosecution of modern warfare. English teachers were no exception. They were required by the Army to inculcate their students with four skills for English communication (reading, writing, listening, and speaking) for the reason that, without these skills, boys and girls could not fulfill their duties in the Army or in military industries. Attention should be paid, however, to the fact that English teachers in wartime America tactfully added one more skill to the required four. To put it briefly, they schemed to encourage their students to acquire the skill of “thinking,” even though military officials underestimated their attempts.

This paper examines Mark Twainʼs “A Horseʼs Tale”（1906）in terms of his recreating the Wild West. Although Twain makes use of the popularity of Buffalo Billʼs Wild West show that was well known both in America and Europe from 1883-1913, Twainʼs Wild West makes a clear contrast with that of Buffalo Billʼs jingoistic show that features spectacular reenactments of American battlefields. Twain, who used to love the pageant, comes to detest the show as it adopts Imperialistic dramatizations. This change can be reflected in “A Horseʼs Tale.” Unlike Buffalo Billʼs Wild West show, no bloody battles are described in Twainʼs Wild West where soldiers, native Americans, African Americans, and animals live in harmony. The male soldiers in the fortress, including Buffalo Bill, significantly show mother-like feminine qualities to nurture a gender-bending girl named Cathy. On the other hand, we can see Twainʼs aversion to Imperialistic violence in his depiction of a Spanish bullfight in which the audience, including a Christian family who support missionaries in China, fanatically enjoys the bloodshed. In the novellaʼs problematic ending, Cathy and her horse are gored to death in a bullfight arena to be initiated into the dream of the idyllic frontier.