The geopolitical case of Arab American and Palestinian students: Missed opportunities

We teach our occupational therapy students to sit with discomfort. We teach them to enter rooms where grief, trauma, conflict, and uncertainty live, and to remain present, skilled, and therapeutically useful. However, we have personally experienced a curriculum that has often bypassed doing the same when the difficult conversation is between students. The contradiction is not lost on learners. Nonetheless, we recognized the tension amongst our students, developed a plan, and brought students and faculty together for shared experiences. We deliberately cultivated conditions for connection, yet when we reflected, we recognized that connection and dialogue are not the same.