"A primary task ... is to restore continuity between the refined and intensified forms of experience that are works of art and the everyday events, doings, and sufferings that are universally recognized to constitute experience."--John Dewey, "Art as Experience" (1934)Dewey's primary task has resurfaced in the visual culture movement and is a reminder that paying attention to everyday experiences is not a new idea. Once again, we are hearing that the most educationally relevant issues are those that resonate with the lives of students. Students cannot understand contemporary dialogue unless they see something about how that dialogue emerges from past debates and artistic work. History, of course, should not be relied on to provide right or wrong answers. Rather, it is part of an ongoing dialogue in which each era tries to make sense of things by framing explanations that sort out the world around them. We begin by understanding what a theory is claiming--whether old or new--but then go on to ask whether it is a good or worthwhile theory and whether it has elements that we want to preserve or dispatch. Just as we should avoid preaching that formalism or expressionism or representationalism is right or wrong, so should we avoid saying that postmodernism or other contemporary "-isms" are all right or all wrong. In the spirit of synergy, we should find what is valuable and what is not in all of these movements. Teaching critical thinking about alternative proposals is not easy, but it is exactly the tool that will best serve our students in the future as they encounter new proposals in the years to come that we ourselves cannot imagine. (Contains four endnotes.)