Learning about sex was a chore a hundred years ago. If you asked about it, you were told that children were bought from the bakery, grew from a cabbage or were delivered by a stork.
Young people were aware that there was something dirty and only going on with 'having children'. In 1909, the feminist Mathilde Wibaut heard a girl say to her friend:“Your parents are much worse than mine, because you have many more children than us”.
Some educators felt that parents should tell their children more about sex. This idea of information became popular in the 1920s, because the Dutch youth were completely let loose by new music and hot fashion – according to adults. Young people had to learn that sex was only allowed if you were married. And that masturbation was forbidden. Not everyone agreed with this 'openness'. For example, the Christian school director Jacob Stamperius thought that "ignorance is the best remedy against sexual aberrations."
It was not until the 1960s that talking about sex became normal in the Netherlands. And few people were surprised when sex was also discussed at school in the 1970s. Teachers prepared students with information books for their sex life. Those books were mainly about falling in love and relationships, because you learned about the physical side of sex in biology. One such 'love book' from 1974 read:'Before you start driving a car, you first take driving lessons, before you start making love, you first take free lessons.'