Not only the 1950s, but if you look at books and tests from the 1800s to the turn of the century, schools produced far better results in the days of one-room schoolhouses on the prairie, with teachers not much older than the students, (and those teachers made so little money they had to board with someone.) And there were so few books, many kids brought a Bible or almanac from home to learn how to read. There were no social workers, field trips, computers, counselors, etc., etc.
Teachers weren’t perving on the kids and families had a purpose, a sense of direction.