According to the China Population Communication & Education Center in Beijing, puberty is hitting children earlier. Its survey shows that Chinese girls enter puberty at the age of 13.38, one year earlier than a similar study done in the 1960s, and boys at 14.43 years, about two years earlier than in the 60s. However, formal sex education generally doesn't start until age 14.
"The earlier, the better," said Sun Yunxiao, a researcher and deputy director of the China Youth & Children Research Center. "For a little kid, perception of a sex organ is as same as a cup because they don't have sexual excitement." Scientific study has found that children taught about sex are less likely to try it earlier, Sun added.
"Young children need sex education," said Min, now 62. "There is no way to avoid it. Children have the right to know their bodies." But he remained cautious about his teaching approach.
"I will not show models of sex organs to primary kids," Min said. "If you go too far, children will be more likely to get confused than really grasp the message, and teachers will worry. But at the same time, if you talk only on the surface, it won't help."
The method of communication that Min chooses is both modest and comfortable. "Chinese kids are very shy," he said. "To begin with, they need encouragement and to be reassured that growing up is perfectly normal and healthy."
However, Min warned that teachers and parents who want to hide the basic facts and hope that the sex education taught in biology classes starting in middle school will solve all the issues are kidding themselves.
Yet, Qi, the school principal, emphasized the morality aspects of Min's class. "I don't want to call it sex education; it is relationship education," Qi said. "We have the responsibility to teach the single-child generation about the importance of friendship and love to their families."
His viewpoint is reflected by the fact that only five out of 50 minutes in Min's class can be properly called sex education, or about things directly related with sex. But five minutes are enough for the beginning - so long as the kids like it.
A big smile on the boy's face is, in Min's eyes, the best response of all. "If they smile," Min said, "I know they understand what I'm saying."
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Producer:Duan
Lei 
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