Here's something odd: I went to a catholic grammar school, taught by nuns, and have no memory of physical punishment ever being used except once, when a dude in 4th grade called the nun a "silly old bitch" and she slapped him once and he landed across the room; then she called his father and when dad found out what the kid had done HE slapped him across the room the other direction. No, it wasn't me.

Now, moving on to high school, well, the Christian Brothers were not so tenderhearted. I'll just leave it go at that. Even then, the best of them never had to resort to physical punishment (although I'm sure they were tempted at times).