But schoolyard playtime has a self-appointed savior.

The Cartoon Network, worried that school administrators' zeal for testing will squeeze out recess, has gone all out.

It has linked with the national PTA to mobilize parents. It is using cartoon characters to recruit kids. It even has experts who suggest recess improves test scores.

The network's "Rescuing Recess" movement also has money. And with only 13 hand-written letters, Carrboro Elementary School has secured a chunk.

This spring, the Cartoon Network asked kids across America to write letters proclaiming a love for recess.

More than 100,000 did.

"I remember a sign about it posted at the school fair in May," said Principal Emily Bivins of Carrboro Elementary. "I had no idea whether anyone would participate."

Though only 13 students from Carrboro Elementary wrote to the network, that was more than any other school in North Carolina.

The school received the reward -- $5,000 for playground equipment -- just the same. The school's PTA is considering using it to build a low-level climbing wall, Bivins said.

Letters sent to the Cartoon Network will be bundled and sent to the students' local superintendents.

As teachers have come under more pressure to prep kids for standardized tests, playtime has been pushed to the margins.

The state is also taking a stronger hand in regulating physical activity. Starting this August, all North Carolina elementary and middle schools will have to offer "structured" physical activity for 30 minutes each day.

That doesn't leave much time for double Dutch and freeze tag. Never mind stealing kisses under the monkey bars.

"Kids don't play like they used to," said Robert Gilmore, physical education teacher at Carrboro Elementary.

"When I was in school, we didn't have video games or computers," Gilmore said. "We rode our bikes and played army. Pinball was about it, and you had to drive to the beach for that."

The value of recess extends far beyond getting kids' heart rates up, according to Robert Friedman, head of the Department of Child and Family Studies at the University of South Florida.

"Those informal opportunities to play together and form positive social connections -- some people call it social capital -- is very important," Friedman said.

Learning with breaks -- particularly for boys -- is more effective than learning nonstop, he said.

The Rescuing Recess campaign is still evolving, said Dennis Adamovich, the Cartoon Network's senior vice president of marketing. It's part of a larger "Get Animated" movement to make kids more active.

"This is pretty extreme," Adamovich said, "but we're actually telling kids to stop watching TV and go do something."

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