"These were not "Tom Brown's Schooldays" style thrashings, but a few strokes with a cane or gym shoe. We accepted it without resentment, and it was usually preferred to detention or lines since it was quickly out of the way"

You were lucky. Canings at our school in the 60s and 70s meant the victim couldn't sit down for three days. More alarming was the obvious glee with which the operation was undertaken, on a bare arse, and by a member of staff who interfered with young boys I subsequently learned.

With a few notable exceptions the standard of teaching was gruesome and violence endemic.