Thank God I went to school in the 70s and 80s. Not only were there fewer online distractions, but there was a greater expectation of independence and responsibility.
In the 80s a bully broke my friend's arm and only failed to break mine because of a thick coat. Teachers were busy chatting it up and didn't believe he was truly hurt. I however left a mark on the bully when I bit him. My friend suffered in pain the rest of the school day. I got a stern talking to. AFAIK the bully was treated as a victim, even after my friend came back the next day in a cast.
Also got to witness a classmate getting spanked on his bare ass by a teacher.
The 80s weren't so great for safety in school.
Not sure if indoor cameras are the answer, though I wouldn't mind if they tried at my kid's school.
I chose a daycare because they have cameras in every room and offer streaming video.
I am not confident that there exists enough funding for enough staffing to properly monitor teachers, nor do they get paid especially well to attract the best candidates. I see cameras as an inevitability, and if I were a teacher, I would want them for my own liability.
They weren't (in ways that are different than now), but virtually all of us survived, and none of us were permanently mentally scarred by perpetual surveillance.
