In Norway, I had the same teacher every year, which is called 'looping.' It's proven to benefit students.

• The same teachers taught us at my small Norwegian school until we graduated.
• This Scandinavian practice, "looping," helps build strong student-teacher relationships.
• Research has shown it can improve test scores and benefit struggling students. 

I went to primary school in a tiny Norwegian village called Å. In the picture from my first day, I'm standing in front of my house in a pink sweatsuit, a denim jacket, and pigtails, looking both shy and excited — I couldn't wait to learn everything. We had 11 kids in my year — Å Skole was a school of just 50 — and we sat at desks positioned in a horseshoe shape as we started learning letters.

Reidun had been a teacher for a long time — I knew this because she'd once taught my mother. Reidun had thick 1980s glasses — appropriate since it was the late '80s — and wore her curled hair short, customary for Norwegian women of a certain age.

I remember her as kind, matronly, and having complete control over her classroom. When she wanted us to be quiet, she'd pick up the sewing pin she kept on her table, cheerfully declaring, "The pin is dropping!" Mesmerized, we'd all fall silent so we could hear it.

Our teacher stayed with us every year, a practice called 'looping'

Reidun — as with all our teachers, we called her by her first name — was our "klasseforstander" or class principal. She was our teacher, and for six years of primary school, she taught us several core subjects and was responsible for our well-being.

Every fall, when we returned, Reidun was there with a new curriculum, ready to move up with us. We had other teachers for subjects such as home economics, music, woodwork, and gym, and those teachers would follow us through the years as well. In third grade, we got a new teacher who taught us English one word at a time. Until then, Reidun had only taught us Norwegian.

Having your teacher follow you as you move through school is called "looping." Until I left Norway at 19, I had no idea looping was unusual. From a Scandinavian perspective, it's obvious that little children need to be nurtured and cared for to learn, and that's a lot easier if they have a connection with their teachers.

Looping has been proven to help struggling students

Looping is especially beneficial for students who struggle academically. Research from the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public-policy research arm of the State University of New York, found that looping improved test scores in math and reading and decreased absenteeism, especially among male students of color. A separate study from the University of Missouri found looping most beneficial for lower-achieving students.

Familiarity meant I got the benefit of the doubt. One fall, I flat-out refused to knit. My art teacher knew I enjoyed crafts from previous years, so she knew I probably wasn't just mouthing off. She discovered that the problem was how the wool was catching on my chapped hands and suggested I do embroidery instead — I took to needlepoint with enthusiasm, and everyone was happy.

Looping prepared me for adulthood

Looping continued throughout my entire Norwegian education. In middle school, my class principal was Beck, a classy older gentleman who was a sweetheart but stood out by insisting we call him by his surname.

During high school, my class principal, Paul Ivar, failed to get me excited about Old Norse, the language of the Vikings, but not for a lack of trying.

After graduation, I left Norway for university in England, and no one would ever be responsible for noticing if I fell behind again. But because I'd had someone watch out for me for all those years, by now, I was more than capable of taking care of myself.