Image by flickr user Matt McGeeImage by 20080723_school_boys.jpg Boys and girls? In the same classroom? Madness! Or at least a distraction from learning, members of the Berkeley County School Board say.

In hopes of finding an innovative way to improve performance, a few Berkeley schools will try gender-separated classrooms next year.

The Berkeley County School Board approved offering single-gender classes for fourth and fifth graders at Boulder Bluff Elementary, for fifth graders at Sedgefield Intermediate School, and for all grades at Berkeley Middle School.

The only opposition to the idea was wether or not it "promoted homosexuality," traditionally opposition to the concept has focused on the failings of the separate-but-equal concept.

The separation will only apply to the classroom itself.