About the week
The Week of Spring Fever is an annual project week about relationships, sexuality and resilience in special and primary education. Rutgers has organised this week together with the GGD public health services since 2006. This year, almost half of the schools in special and primary education took part, and 4,000 more lessons from the Spring Fever in Your Belly teaching package were taught than last year—an increase of almost 20 percent.
There are separate lessons for every year group in primary education, tailored to the age and experiences of the children in that group. Primary schools taking part this year taught lessons on the theme ‘What do I like?’. “Research shows that children develop a more positive self-image and body image when they think about their bodies, relationships and sexuality from an early age. These children are also better able to express their wishes and boundaries and treat one another with more respect,” says programme officer Elsbeth Reitzema.
Schools can decide for themselves whether to take part in the project week and whether to choose Rutgers’ teaching package or one of the other two recognised teaching packages. Teachers then also decide for themselves how to implement it. Rutgers advises schools to inform parents in advance about the lessons and what will be discussed in them. The GGD public health services support schools in this.
Rutgers and the schools receive a few questions about this every year. This year there were many more, because a great deal of fake news was spread about, among other things, young children and the sexual acts that teachers were supposedly going to discuss in the lessons.
Storm of fake news
The fake news began as early as January, as the investigative journalism platform Pointer explained in an extensive article about the disinformation. Since then, politicians and opinion-makers have taken sections from various teaching programmes out of context and shared booklets and images that do not belong to the Week of Spring Fever or Rutgers’ Spring Fever in Your Belly teaching package.
The fake news even led to parliamentary questions being put to Minister Wiersma for Primary and Secondary Education. He could not counter all the disinformation, but did make clear that relationship and sex education is also compulsory in primary education and that schools are free to decide how to provide it. He also emphasised its importance: “Society does not benefit from raising children too much in a bubble and only letting them out when they are twelve,” Wiersma said in response to questions from, among others, the SGP and FvD.
A turbulent week
The fake news not only led to more questions at schools, but also caused unrest at Rutgers’ office. As Rutgers director Marieke van der Plas also tweeted: colleagues were approached personally, threatened, insulted and called all kinds of things.
In various Twitter threads and on other social media, Rutgers explained what was incorrect about the different fake-news reports. Programme manager Luc Lauwers: “We started on Twitter with a general thread about the fake news. After the debate in the House of Representatives, we made a thread about the inaccuracies that politicians put to the minister there. We also explained that an illustration from the booklet What Is Sex? was not part of the project week.”
Rutgers received some unpleasant reactions to this, but mainly a great deal of support from parents and opinion-makers. For example, De Telegraaf columnist Hester Zitvast wrote: “It is downright naïve to think that a child is not already thinking about it or is not ready for it. Because of their unlimited access to the internet, children know much more than we did in the past, and that deserves guidance.”
In the news
Many mainstream media outlets also reported on the Week of Spring Fever. Luc appeared on Khalid & Sophie and Elsbeth spoke on Hart van Nederland. Numerous experts not affiliated with Rutgers also debunked the fake news in various media outlets and on their own platforms, and emphasised the importance of relationship and sex education at a young age. Sexologist Eveline Stallaart, for example, said on EenVandaag: “The biggest problem with the criticism is that a lot of untruths are being shared, but also that people are filling in what supposedly happens in the lessons and what effect that would have on the children. (…) It has been proven that early sex education leads to fewer teenage pregnancies and that children have sex for the first time at a later age.”
Doctor and sexologist Rik van Lunsen said in Trouw that, as far as he is concerned, parents and teachers cannot start sex education too early. “The funny thing is that all kinds of scientific research also show that the more sex-positive and comprehensive the education, the better children do in that area. It is abundantly clear that education is linked to enjoyment of sexuality as well as safe behaviour.”
Journalist Chris Klomp also published an article on his own platform focusing on the usefulness and necessity of sex education in relation to child abuse. “It has long been abundantly clear in the field of care that good education can prevent a great deal of misery.”
The joint GGD public health services also emphasised the importance of relationship and sex education in primary education on their website. They wrote: “Amazed by the vehemence of this debate, we stand up for the safety of the people who do this work. Attention to relationships and sexuality from an early age is part of healthy development and parenting.”
The mayor
On Friday 24 March, Mayor Sharon Dijksma visited Rutgers’ office in Utrecht, where she spoke with Luc and Elsbeth. She encouraged Rutgers to stand by its values and continue to promote the importance of the Week of Spring Fever. “There was a lot of noise coming from a small, dark corner this week, but a much larger silent majority thinks what you are doing is very important. And so do I,” she said.
This and the many other messages of support Rutgers received over the past week mean a great deal to its employees. Luc: “They encourage us to continue our work, together with the GGD public health services and our other expert partners.”
Skilled teachers
Amid all the unrest, teachers often delivered wonderful lessons and had valuable conversations with the children and their parents. Young children played the game ‘Tiktik, who am I?’ and watched the episode ‘How beautiful you are’ from The Sand Castle. In year 4, children did exercises involving the feeling of yes, the feeling of no and a feeling of doubt, and learned how to express and recognise these feelings in others.
The teachers also made their voices heard online. For example, teacher Paul de Brouwer said on Twitter that he had “a good conversation about the birds and the bees, sanitary pads, difficult step-parent/stepchild relationships and homosexuality”. “All in response to questions from the children themselves.” Teacher Eddy shared on Twitter every day what he had discussed with his year 8 class, while on TikTok Teacher Jordi and Teacher Jesper shared videos about the Week of Spring Fever.
Pupils
And the pupils? Most of them heard little about the controversy. In class, they discussed whether or not it is pleasant to receive a big birthday kiss on the mouth from your uncle or aunt. “A little strange,” said a girl on the Youth News programme. Not a problem, said a classmate. “Because I know them well too.”
In this edition of the Week of Spring Fever as well, children talked extensively about what they like and about their boundaries. And that is what the week is intended for. De Volkskrant took its readers to year 5 at De Clipper primary school in Rotterdam. What do the children think about images on social media portraying a perhaps not entirely realistic image of women and men? “Not good,” they said in unison. ‘You should just be yourself!’ Giovanni called out. ‘You’re beautiful just the way you are,’ said Antoinela.”