This paper discusses the attempt to consolidate a civic-patriotic ideology that advocated zeal for the motherland and its institutions. Understanding the contribution of intellectuals who thought of civics, the role of schools in their dissemination and the memories of the subjects, teachers and students of the Alberto Torres College, of civic activities were the objectives of this research. In 1948 the school was founded under the aegis of ruralist inspiration and was the daily stage of the civic rites that marked the life of schools in the Republic. In 1969, with the institution of the discipline of Moral and Civic Education, these rites were put in evidence, as they were resigned. In this sense, the temporal dimension of the research ranges from the founding of the college to the process of recomposition of democracy in the 1980s. Citizenship, an ideal that consists of many symbols, images, projections of citizenship and nationality, needed school institutions to be widespread. It is worth mentioning that in the Brazilian dictatorial experiences civism was handled hard, especially in the Military Dictatorship (1964-1985) in which a decree-law 869/1969 was instituted that made the Teaching of Moral and Civic Education compulsory and gave other measures. An education for civility has become a priority for regime-minded intellectuals and has been devised in an expanded way, since the curricular component created by the decree was intended to be an "educational practice" and not a mere discipline. From the reports of memorialists, photographs, oral testimonies of former students and teachers will be discussed the experiences of the subjects that make up the school institution with regard to rites and civic symbols. From this scope of sources, in the field of Cultural History, we sought to highlight the elements of civism as components of the social imaginary and that are present in the memory of the subjects who lived the Military Dictatorship (1964-1985).