The paper builds on the idea of “civic literacy” as a learning outcome from civic education and discuss how to construct a curriculum for “civic literacy”, in a highly individualistic society. I start by looking at the operational definition of “civic literacy” developed and used by Henry Milden in 2002. I then suggest that “civic literacy” may be compared with the concept of civic virtues, meaning that a civic education aiming at “civic literacy” has to be based on a curriculum that includes intellectual as well as practical learning. I then conclude the paper by looking at the concept of authority as developed by Hannah Arendt. Following Arendt, I argue that a curriculum for civic education leading to civic literacy, must include elements of learning to think and reflect by the use of experience, imagination and judgement.
