sexuality education is the learning goal of children

ANPLesson material in the Week of Spring Fever (photo from 2015)

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 18:03

Parents who are concerned about the sexual education lessons in the Week of Spring Fever should contact the school, advises Minister Wiersma for Primary and Secondary Education. Primary schools have an explicit role in the sexual education and sexual resilience of children, he says.

“We have all determined that sexuality education is one of the learning objectives, so it is logical that lessons are taught about this,” he said in the House of Representatives. How they do this is determined by school boards, teachers and parents.

The minister of education was invited to the question hour because FvD leader Baudet is against the lesson packages of the Week of Spring Jitters. These were again developed this year by knowledge center Rutgers. According to Baudet, children from the age of four are “encouraged” to talk about adult sexual behavior and gender reassignment. He is also not pleased with the extra teaching material about the female genitalia. Other parties also had questions.

Wishes and limits

Wiersma points out that the spring fever lessons differ per age and are mainly aimed at making children wiser and more resilient. “In group 2, for example, it is about differences between boys and girls, wishes and limits. I think it is important, also as a parent, that children learn this.”

Lessons about menstruation and ejaculation for children who have to deal with this given their age, or about falling in love and understanding what love is, are also part of the learning objectives of the education, says Wiersma. “If there are children who don’t learn this at home, and it’s not allowed at school, where are they?”

Week of the Spring Jitters often leads to questions

Every year Rutgers receives questions from concerned parents about the theme week and the lessons. “This year there are more because fake news is being spread about it, for example about toddlers and sexual acts,” says developer Luc Lauwers. The package for groups 7 and 8 does contain information about sex, safe sex and sexual resilience.

“Children are not encouraged to do anything, they just play. They have mobile phones and they see everything. Teachers can use the curriculum at their own discretion for the questions that their students have.”

Lobke Vlaming of the Parents and Education Foundation also says that slightly more questions are coming in this year, even though the week has only just started. “The only thing we can advise is: go talk to the school. Parents often haven’t done that yet,” she says. In many cases of concerned parents, the schools have not told them in advance about the sex education lessons.

Wiersma would not approve of incorrect use of the teaching packages, but he does not know whether that will happen. The Week of Spring Jitters is not government teaching material. About a third to half of the schools opt for this package. There are also other teaching packages, for example Wonderfully Made, for “sexual education from a Christian perspective”.

The minister was unable to dispel the concerns of a number of political parties. Denk says he has received “numerous emails” from concerned parents because they are afraid that their four or five-year-old child will be presented with genitals and sex. And the PVV thinks lessons about sexuality in groups 7 and 8 are a bit early.

Raising in a bubble

The SGP believes that sexual education belongs in the first place within the family. The party wanted to know whether the minister will withdraw the subsidy for Rutgers.

That is not Wiersma’s intention, and he does not think that sexual education only by parents is a good idea. “Society will not benefit if we raise children too much in a bubble and don’t let them go until they are twelve.” He will request the teaching material from Rutgers and study it in more detail.

Meanwhile, the Spring Fever Week has started in many schools and students talk about, for example, what they like or don’t like in contact with other people and how they can discuss this. The Youth Journal made this report:

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