Eisenhower on the glaring deficiencies of citizen education... in the years before World War II

I have to set this up, but I'll be quick.

I recently finished Jonathan W. Jordan's Ike and Winston, and it rekindled my interest in reading Eisenhower's Crusade in Europe. I've read a lot of Churchill's books over the years, but never Eisenhower. So, when I saw a copy Crusade in Europe on a shelf at a cousin's house a couple of weeks ago, I grabbed it and put it in my reading queue. (In my defense, I did ask first.)

Understand, then, that I'm reading this book only for my own enjoyment, with no particular axe to grind, just an appreciation for history, and an interest in primary sources. In an early chapter, Eisenhower is talking about setting up his command in England, in the early days of America's involvement in World War II, and he is talking about military leadership, and what is different about the American soldier in comparison, say, to a typical European. He paraphrases General Von Steuben's complaint, made in a letter written during the American Revolution, that "in Europe you tell a soldier to do thus, and he does it; and that in America it is necessary also to tell him why he does it."

Eisenhower then continues (emphasis added):

Once the recruit of 1941 was inducted into the service the military leader had to shoulder almost exclusive responsibility for imparting such an understanding, but there was implied a glaring deficiency in our country's educational processes. It seemed to me that constant stressing of the individual rights and privileges of American citizenship had overshadowed the equally important truth thta such individualism can only be sustained so long as the citizen accepts his full responsibility for the welfare of the nation that protects him in the exercise of these rights.

Crusade in Europe, Doubleday & Company, 1948, p. 60.

Whoa!

Eisenhower isn't complaining about the tuned-in, turned-on kids of the 1960s -- he's talking about their parents. The Greatest Generation. The gray-flanneled bunch that we all rebelled against in our youth. Well, my youth. I realize that now, when we talk about the World War II generation, we are talking about the grandparents, and even great-grandparents, of most of today's readers. But Eisenhower is carping that American educators in the 1930s were putting too much emphasis on citizen rights, without also educating future voters on the responsibilities that they must shoulder in order to maintain those rights and secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity.

Does anyone seriously believe that our children today are learning how to accept their share of responsibility for the welfare of this great nation that protects us in the exercise of our rights? Are our children and grandchildren even learning to appreciate the historical anamoly that is the United States of America? How do we help transmit this vital principle to the generations that will succeed ours?