“Immediately, if not sooner!”
June 22, 2024
“Return to your seats, immediately if not sooner.” “Stop talking, immediately if not sooner.” These were common directives many of my elementary school teachers would give to my classmates and me. My young mind could grasp the meaning of “immediately”, but not the meaning of doing something sooner than immediately. What could be sooner than immediately?
Over the years, and as I, quite frankly, used that phrase with my students, I came to understand the phrase was emphasizing the urgency and…