Gads, I put tha teacher as a 5-star General in the Quilt Police!
All the above. You learn to do your quilting in a way that works for you. Some of us have physical handicaps and couldn't quilt her way. [Even without a handicap I wouldn't follow that teacher's advice much.]
Please, please, please share your well thought out and nonconfrontive remarks with the quilt store. Quilting should be fun and it is the teachers who should adjust ... not you. Ask to take a similar class from someone else for FREE! Quilting should definitely be fun. When it isn't fun then quilters won't buy as much from that store. It will literally be that store's loss.
ali