According to the chair of the English department at Georgetown University (Washington, D.C.), NATALK, a telecommunications subconference on BreadNet for Native American students, has merits and possibilities for cross-cultural communication. Giving students the chance to "publish" their writing electronically can motivate reluctant writers. And for non-Native American students, it is an opportunity to respond to a different culture. The Native American productions on the computer, many of which are beautiful, artistic and narrative in nature, convey a frustration, anger or fear of education. Several examples illustrate the power and intensity of student writing. Education for them does not seem to be a liberating or empowering experience. Somehow, whether consciously or unconsciously, educators have prevented these students and others perhaps from talking about their frustration, values or ambitions in school. Perhaps educators fear the possibility of their own exclusion from such a discussion. Perhaps they want to give them the power to speak but fear exclusion should they give them the power to speak to each other in their own discourse. How does the reader respond to a Native American who has written a narrative about herding sheep, unless he or she tells her own story? Is the educator or the student willing to exchange story for story with the Native American? (TB)