But if those nuns beat you, and some apparently did, what would that do to your view of God? Probably destroy it. I have a friend who was in a Catholic orphanage as a child and the nuns were terrible to her. She remembers having to crawl across gravel on her hands and knees. That kind of thing destroys you. She never really got over it. They’re supposed to have a higher standard than social workers.
Yes, could be. It depends if they were lovingly strict or meanly vindictive.
We had corporal punishment and hard work assignments at the prep school I went to, and as far as I can see, it was basically a good thing. Sometimes it was unfairly administered, but most students could see that the purpose was good. And not a few of those kids needed straightening out.
Among the helpful things it taught me is that life is tough.
Nowadays, there’s no such thing as corporal punishment in the schools. Instead, they send you to a psychiatrist and put you on ritalin, or they send you home for a week, or they just let you go off the rails and do nothing to really try to change it.