Could also see it as a misguided attempt to help, like teaching someone to swim by throwing them in the pool. Obviously I don't know your teacher, if you say she was a mean one she was a mean one, but that's the charitable interpretation.

I'm interested in what you (and other current/former stutterers) think the right strategy in the classroom would be. On the one hand you don't want to push a student into daily humiliations, it's cruel. On the other hand, life will continue to require public speaking, and allowing a student to hide from that is maybe doing them a disservice in the long run. What approaches from teachers did/didn't work for you?