Moms launch platform to teach kids American history, values

FPI / October 1, 2020

Dismayed by the lack of or skewed instruction on American history in schools, three moms got together and founded on online platform which teaches about the nation's founding and instills in students a spirit of patriotism.

"Lincoln said that the philosophy of the school room in one generation is the philosophy of government in the next, and we know that we don’t have control over the school room, so we’re taking it up at the dinner table," said Rachel Gerli, who along with friends Alli Pillinger Choi and Britt Riner, founded the online platform Primerrily.

Gerli detailed what the platform is about in a Sept. 29 interview on the Daily Signal News podcast.

"It’s a parenting resource. It’s really aimed at passing along American founding values and a love of our country to the next generation. And we do that through fun crafts, through curated stories, guided conversations for your dinner tables," Gerli said.

Gerli told Daily Signal host Virginia Allen that the idea for the online platform started "with Britt and Alli. They are a few years ahead of me in the parenting journey and they had styles of motherhood that I really admired.

"So, we were all at this black tie thing down in D.C. and kind of bemoaning what we were seeing in culture and in schools. And Alli was saying that at her child’s preschool they stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance. So they hung a flag in their New York City apartment and Alli taught her daughter herself and it’s a ritual they still do every morning, even though now that the children are older.

"And Britt, who’s down in Florida, is always posting these pictures and ideas around things she does with her kids to commemorate American holidays, planting flags in the front yard, talking through their family constitution on Constitution Day.

"And so we said to her, 'Is this something that you’re seeing in Florida also or are we in this New York bubble?' And she’s like, 'Actually that was a question in the debate for school board candidates last year.' And we were like, 'When did the flag become controversial?'

"So our kind of initial outrage sparked an idea of an opportunity that if we didn’t get involved and we simply allowed the mainstream media and culture to raise our kids, we were going to raise woke children.

"And we’re really intentional in everything else we do, and we recognize that children are sponges, so it was important to us to know what they’re absorbing and we want them to absorb American values. We want them to learn about America and see growing up in America as this really fun, exciting adventure because anything still really is possible."

Free Press International