The first day of 1st grade typically holds a few unpleasant surprises, and Thursday's start of the school year was no exception. The most serious problem was rain, which at my daughter’s elementary school meant returning students were quickly handed off to unfamiliar adults at the door rather than allowed to gather in classroom groups in the playground.

For me, rain meant no meeting the new teachers, no leisurely mingling with parents, just a quick goodbye to my nervous 5-year-old as she was whisked inside the building. The coddling my daughter and I experienced in kindergarten, when camera-toting parents were allowed to accompany their darlings from a secluded gathering spot to the new classroom, had been replaced by institutional efficiency. The first day of kindergarten is a once-in-a-lifetime moment, but the first day of 1st grade is more like your second wedding: You know a lot more about what awaits, and you don’t get as many presents or take as many photos.

Second unpleasant surprise: After watching my daughter disappear, I walked 10 paces and realized I was still holding her backpack.

But the end of the school day offered two nice surprises. First, the skies had turned sunny, so I finally met the people who will be in charge of my child’s education for the next 10 months. Second, in describing her day, my daughter told me 1st-graders have recess before they eat lunch.

It seems a small change, putting recess first, but it’s actually part of a growing reform movement. Educators are discovering that young children who play first and eat afterward usually waste less food and milk — likely because they enter the cafeteria hungry and thirsty, but also because they don’t race through their meals to get to the monkey bars. Teachers say students who return to class right after lunch are often more attentive and less fidgety compared to the sweaty wretches who come panting from the playground.

Despite such clear benefits, school administrators and parents often resist the idea of putting recess before lunch. Many aren’t sure this change addresses any real problem that needs to be fixed. Reformers also confront the usual challenge of upending any longstanding educational tradition, evidence be damned.

But the biggest obstacle to putting recess before lunch is the difficulty of adjusting school schedules, even a tiny bit. Space is limited in New York elementaries, which means kids must compete for time in small cafeterias and playgrounds. I would not be surprised if my daughter’s recess-before-lunch routine was forced by a scheduling necessity rather than adopted in the name of better nutrition and learning.

Whatever. My kid reported she played well at recess, ate ravenously at lunch, and enjoyed her first day of 1st grade. When New York’s school system works, I rarely care if it’s because of happenstance or forethought. Now, if I can just remember to let go of that backpack.