Our first year coding lecturer did similar, but instead of teaching us Java (which is what most other classes used at the time) he insisted we use Gofer.

From the point of view of a student who was excited to finally learn "real" programming, having this toy language crammed down our throats instead, along with a side-serving of smugly academic FP-superiority, was enough to sour me on FP for a long time.

Hopefully you gave your students this more as "here's a neat trick to add to your toolbox" and not "listen up plebs, iteration is for losers."