The republican thought from São Paulo, analyzed in this article under the aspect of the necessary school education to the constitution of the National State in Brazil of the end of the century XIX, it defined as essential for the citizen's formation the acquisition of values centered in the categories civilization and culture, so that a liberal ethos was assimilated so that the country could reach a development identical for the European society. Those categories would be the paradigms through which the individuals would be identified as capable citizens to participate in the State and therefore to constitute the nation.