Many aspects of the current cultural situation bode well for undergraduate art education. Today's college students have had more experience of the visual arts, at least in their vernacular forms, than any generation in history. They have watched thousands of hours of television, watched hundreds of feature films, and often have mastered computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop, which offers a bewildering array of creative possibilities in visual design. Unfortunately, the ever-increasing availability of visual images has outstripped students' ability to discuss them. In this article, the author laments the lack of personal connectedness of the backpack generation--the cohort of Americans who attend colleges in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century--to the images they encounter in the classrooms. As such, the author suggests that art education courses should be started with metacommentary. In this metacommentary, teachers can promote genuine classroom interaction and thus create genuine learning. (Contains 41 notes.)