PASADENA, Md. (AP) - As classmates pecked at computer keyboards on a recent Friday afternoon, George Gunther, a blue-eyed first-grader with a large alligator on his T-shirt, sat gazing at the sunshine outside.

``If I could, I'd stay out the whole day,'' he whispered, his feet dangling in oversized running shoes.

But George and his classmates at Bodkin Elementary School, half an hour south of Baltimore, don't get outside much. They work straight through to lunch most days, when they get a short break. Then it's back to class until after 3 o'clock.

Harsh as it sounds, that's not unusual. As schools increase academic demands and fret over playground fights and unstructured time, the traditional elementary school recess is losing out. School districts across the nation are simply keeping students at their desks, and that worries some parents and child development experts. Young children, they say, need breaks from work and increased physical activity.

Swinging on monkey bars or trading baseball cards may seem out of place in school, but child development experts say recess performs an important role: It allows children to choose something they like to do, to excel physically and to indulge in pretend play - all of which tend to get squeezed out in increasingly structured schooldays.

Development experts also say recess allows potentially hyperactive children to blow off steam, while giving teachers a chance to see pupils' social isolation that might not be apparent in the classroom.

Lauren Kincaid, a parent of two elementary school children in Omaha, Neb., got so worked up four years ago when she learned recess wasn't part of her first-grader's school day - he got a five- to eight-minute break at lunch - that she formed a group that fought to get it back.

``I noticed that my son would come home and just absolutely fall apart,'' she said. ``He was exhausted; he was wound up; he was angry.''

Last January, Kincaid and other parents finally persuaded the school district to establish a policy encouraging schools to take 30-minute lunch breaks with a minimum recess of 15 minutes. Now Kincaid's group is trying to get the lunchtime break extended to 40 minutes.

``It's not a surprise that kids are growing up to be fat, sedentary adults,'' she said.

``I hear it over and over and over again,'' said Chip Wood, a Massachusetts consultant who helps teachers find time during their schooldays for their pupils to play. ``They're scared that they won't be able to fit everything in.''

Wood said schools eliminate recess to be able to report more ``time on task,'' or minutes spent on academics.

While no research exists on how many school districts are cutting recess, Wood and others said parent and teacher complaints are on the rise nationwide. School districts - among them Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit - are making recess optional or eliminating it. In Atlanta, they've even built a few elementary schools without playgrounds.

``We haven't had recess in years,'' said Spencer Ragsdale, spokesman for DeKalb County schools in suburban Atlanta. ``This is one thing we don't have any wiggle room on. They say this is the way it's going to be, and we say, `Fine.'''

State academic requirements have given way to a virtual recess-free zone in the district's 82 elementary schools: the 97,000 pupils don't even get a play period after lunch. They simply file back to class.

In Virginia, fears that tough new state standards were driving schools to cut recess prompted the state school board to write ``a daily recess'' into its accreditation standards.

In Anne Arundel County, Md., none of the 30,000 first- through fifth-graders, including young George Gunther, enjoys a traditional morning recess. State and local academic requirements squeezed that out long ago.

George and his classmates seem to have adjusted.

``I'm used to it,'' said Natalie Shina, an effervescent 7-year-old who gets her run-around time after school. But she confided that six hours in class can be hard on a kid.

``Sometimes I would be, like, `When's the day going to be over?''' she said, rolling her eyes.

Ken Nichols, a county instructional director, said parents don't complain about the lack of recess, which he said cuts down on playground injuries and conflicts.

Child development experts bristle at the notion.

``I don't believe you can keep kids on task all day,'' said Olga Jarrett, a professor of early child education at Georgia State University.

She and others point to research showing that children who get vigorous exercise during their school day perform better academically. For one thing, their brains simply get more blood.

Jarrett said her own classroom studies show that, deprived of recess, children cannot concentrate as easily, lose focus and distract others. She takes satisfaction from taped observations that show the average cooped-up pupil, when tracked all day, is totally distracted for 15 to 20 minutes - the length of the average recess period.

Peggy Barns, principal at Summit Elementary School in Cincinnati, got around the ``time on task'' dilemma by instituting a sort of super-recess, a series of 20-minute group activities that give children a break while engaging them in games such as Capture the Flag or Blob Tag, a large-group variation on traditional tag games.

``We feel like it stimulates their brains and gives them a fresh rush of energy to really be able to return the classroom and be more focused,'' she said. ``These are children - they need to run and play.''

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.