In both baseball and mathematics education, the conventional wisdom is to avoid errors at all costs. That advice might be on target in baseball, but in mathematics, it is not always the best strategy. Sometimes an analysis of errors provides much deeper insights into mathematical ideas and, rather than something to eschew, certain types of errors…

Andrea Lunsford and Karen Lunsford conclude "Mistakes Are a Fact of Life: A National Comparative Study," a discussion of their research project exploring patterns of formal grammar and usage error in first-year writing, with an invitation to "conduct a local version of this study." The author was eager to accept their invitation; learning and…