ABSTRACT
This chapter considers what a normative civic education would look like and evaluates whether civic education is already normative in certain respects. A survey of liberal and republican theorists identifies the possible substance of a normative civic education that promotes a “vision of good citizenship” that is both instrumentally valuable to preserve liberal democracy and intrinsically valuable for individuals to live a democratic way of life. The cultivation of some version of rational autonomy and civic virtue is considered vital to any “vision of good citizenship.” The rise of Christian Nationalism across Texas provides a case study for what is at stake if American public schools fail to endorse a normative civic education that cultivates the beliefs and behaviors of liberal democracy.
