I think it's dangerous to assume it might not have been as awful. There's a real possibility that it would have been worse. My wife is an ELL teacher and she constantly has to advocate that her students don't have developmental issues, they're just working with the language. Part of the assumption of developmental issues without real evidence is a result of blatant racism. Many ELL kids have trauma because they're immigrants who left horrible situations, and that's compounded by the fact that the Republican party is committed to blatant hate campaigns against immigrants (these hate campaigns are almost never denounced). It's really heartache on top of heartache. I'm glad you dodged that bullet! Thanks for the comment!