Perhaps it was just as well

I was forbidden to attend Chinese theaters, never allowed to listen to Chinese minstrel singers, and entirely cut apart from the great Chinese folk tradition and mythology. When I entered a missionary college, the little foundation in classical Chinese given me by my father was completely neglected. Perhaps it was just as well—so that later, after a completely Westernized education, I could go back to it with the freshness and vigorous delight of a child of the West in an Eastern wonderland. (Lin Yutang, The Importance of Living, page 408)
What does it was just as well mean in the above passage?