Letting the life stories of students or parts of those stories into composition courses not only helps students improve their writing skills, but also helps many of them connect with themselves--who they are, who they are becoming, what they want to become--in ways that enhance their abilities to learn in their own fields. Students who fail to ask such questions mistake skills for understanding and thus fail to benefit from the goals of a liberal education. Consequently, autobiographical writing should be an important element in any Writing-across-the-Curriculum program. (Autobiographical writing by a teacher and by three students are included, and a 7-item bibliography is attached.) (SAM)