In my mid-century primary school as well, unruly boys were constantly being given "the strap."

In my expensive Catholic private high school, the rooms where the nuns would receive the parents had beautiful architecture and expensive, elegant furniture, but behind the scenes, the actual classrooms, the dormitories and cafeterias and the nun's living quarters were bare-bones and spartan, and the discipline very strict. 

We went from classroom to cafeteria in silent rows and were punished for talking. Our report cards were publicly handed to us and discussed in class, and bad students were humiliated publicly by the Mother Superior. On the last day of school, we were made to get down on our knees to scrub the wood floors. It was supposed to teach us discipline and humility. 

My mother sent me there because her own experience in a similar place was "the best days of my life". I hated it. Some loved it. Different folks like different strokes....