When I was young, I was spanked, whipped, beaten, very often. During Fifth Grade, at age 11, I was beaten daily - fists, open hands, switches, belts, shoes, you name it. My teacher had suggested it to my parents. It was normal for me - I was sore/bruised nearly all the time. One time, I went to the YMCA to participate in kids' fun activities, and there was a furor about me - I was in my trunks, and wanted to go swimming, but the councillors wouldn't let me - they had noticed that my back was covered in crusty, weeping bloody and puss-y stripes, and they were worried that I might infect others, or so they said, after I asked why I couldn't swim.
At this time and place in history in the USA, male teachers and Principals of the schools all had paddles for spanking, and used them more or less often, as circumstances dictated. Students were pretty respectful, and fights/theft/disrespect was vanishingly rare - maybe one or two events of each type in the whole school year.
Neighborhood homeowners nearly all left their doors unlocked, whether home or away. Mothers and Fathers of other families often offered, and sometimes did, spank children not their own in an attempt to socialize them to the culture of the neighborhood. This was done in the front yard, in full view of others. Usually this was followed by a phone call to your home (if you were the offending kid) after 6 PM to your parents, explaining what the offense was. More often than not, this was followed by a spanking from my father, sometiimes with a walk to the neighbor's house for an apology, and sometimes with work/repair/chores to be done at the neighbors' house, in reparation - the whole neighborhood knew my shame. Other kids lived similarly.
Often, the next day the kid would go to school he/she would be taunted (Guy got a whippin, Guy got a whippin...) or sympathized with (what happened?)by the other students - many already knew what you did, who you did it to, and what you "got' for punishment. By the end of the school day, everybody knew.
On rare occasions, when a kid did something that was shockingly bad, the next Sunday, the Sermons in the town's Churches would be addressing that issue. This was like when an unmarried girl got pregnant, a kid was maimed, or something of value was destroyed, burned down or stolen. Often the Sermon would result in the stolen thing being returned, or the culprit being identified. If the transgression was truly offensive, the whole town would have a response, and the guilty party would be shunned/run out of town/distrusted for the rest of their life.
Spanking works! As you can tell from my previous post on this issue, I have modified the tradition to hand down to my Daughter - maybe my family is just a few generations behind the others posting here.
I (and nearly all of us from those times) turned out OK. Yeah, there were crimes, but not like now...Yeah there was disrespect, but not like now...Yeah there were out of wedlock pregnancies, but not like now...
I lived how we got here from those times, but I can understand how you young'uns could disbelieve all I have said here, but as far as my life, it is all true.