Settings for the Maggot Moon

So the settings for Maggot Moon might be somewhere around 40+ years ago since teachers were allowed to cane and or hit students if they are misbehaving and such. As to this book, the main character, Standish Treadwell is the student of this era and Mr Gunnell is the teacher. I'm not sure where this location and or country is set based on in real life but it does say some places that this book is set like Zone Seven and Motherland but that's all I know so far in the book.