I don't think I ever got whaled on for anything I did in school. Not by my parents and not be the teachers.
To me, most of the time it was sort of a game. None of the things I did were really bad, just mischief. If I got away with it, I won. If I got caught, I got a spanking. (If it was at school, that meant one at school and one when I got home. They always called my parents.)
There was a huge variation in severity of the spankings. School principal used a canoe paddle. Dad used his belt. Mama used a flimsy little sewing ruler that was really just for show.
Spankings rarely stopped me from doing anything. They did, however, teach me to anticipate potential consequences, then decide if the reward was worth the risk. I'm not convinced "time out" does that effectively.