Overview:
Trevor Noah was featured on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, the world’s top Health and Wellness podcast.
I recently listened to an episode of Jay Shetty’s On Purpose podcast, the world’s top Health and Wellness podcast. This episode featured an interview with Trevor Noah. I learned so much from this conversation and quickly realized that so much of what was said was directly relevant to the current state of education. Like many educators, I fear for the future of our profession and am seeking anything that might offer a glimmer of hope. One of the most insightful and impactful questions Shetty raised with Noah was about deeply examining, redefining, and rediscovering one’s purpose.
“How do you define your current purpose?” (Shetty)
I believe this is a question teachers ask themselves repeatedly throughout their careers. When we first entered education, many overlooked the low pay, high certification demands, constant teacher blaming, and other barriers to joining or staying in the profession.
A future once again filled with uncertainty.
In 2025, we are again trying to navigate another challenge that amplifies the uncertain future of education under the proposed changes to the American education system under the incoming presidential administration. As an educator and advocate for all children, these potential changes are deeply anxiety-inducing. As a parent of a child with special needs, the mere thought of these possible changes is terrifying to me. As an American, I fear for our country’s future if we continue to overlook the crucial role teachers play in safeguarding the democratic society we claim to want to preserve.
Despite these proposed changes, many of us still feel a strong calling to fulfill our purpose of educating the next generation. We are dedicated to our students, we are dedicated to having an impact on their futures, and we are dedicated to the teaching profession itself. If not us, then who?
Noah extends a common educational theme: nurturing students who only need the right environment and care to unlock their full potential.
“[I define my current purpose] As being a fertilizer.” (Noah)
“For?” (Shetty)
“Everything and everyone I come in contact with, I would hope to be somebody who enriches the soil that I touch.” (Noah)
Teachers cultivate our students like roses growing from concrete: the broken education system. Just as a rose needs the right soil (a solid foundation), water (knowledge), and sunlight (encouragement) to thrive, so too do students require nurturing, guidance, and support to flourish despite the challenges they face.
Teachers nurture the growth of our students.
Like Noah, our purpose as educators is to be the fertilizer that helps our students grow. Noah’s description of himself as the embodiment of a fertilizer reinforces the definition of a fertilizer: one that cultivates growth and development in others. This concept directly challenges those who argue that fostering critical thinking skills in children amounts to indoctrination instead of our goal to “teach [students] to think intensively and to think critically.” (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.)
Further, the motif of fertilization of others lends itself to the idea of impacting the whole child, not just their academic needs. I strive to be a teacher who imparts knowledge, “enriches” students’ lives, and makes them feel genuinely valued and cared for. Noah expands on his ideas about being the fertilizer that nurtures others.
“I would hope to be somebody who improved somebody’s life in the slightest of ways, whether it helping you solves a problem…whatever it may be, I would hope to do what a good fertilizer does in that it enables the soil to be richer, it enables the plant to grow taller, it brings all of the pieces together, you know, it becomes a food that creates more food.” (Noah)
The student has become the teacher.
Few things bring a teacher more joy than knowing they’ve had such a profound impact on a student’s life that the student is inspired to become a teacher themselves. I have been so blessed to be able to see several of my students enter this profession. I have made every effort to encourage them to persevere despite the seemingly endless challenges and obstacles that are constantly placed in our way to undermine long-term commitment to education.
When I reflected on the symbolic and metaphorical meaning of Noah’s use of “fertilizer,” I recognized a sense of familiarity with this concept. That is, until Noah did what he does best: encouraging us to look beyond surface-level analysis and dive deeper than the critical thinking we often limit ourselves to.
“And so I would say that would probably be what I’d like to focus on the most right now, even for myself because fertilizer even makes itself bigger. It grows itself. You add more mulch to it and it keeps on going.” (Noah)
I never fully considered how “fertilizing” others enhances our “fertilization.” This concept relates to regeneration, emphasizing that we must constantly refresh and reimagine our teaching methods, nurture our minds as lifelong learners, and renew our purpose and commitment to the craft.
“In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.” (Phil Collins)
As educators, when we teach others, we are learning ourselves. When we intentionally focus on the mental, spiritual, and physical well-being of others, it compels us to reflect on our own well-being in the process. When we strive to be the “mulch”, or protective covering over our students (the plants) in our classrooms (our gardens), we are also symbolically protecting ourselves against anything that might dampen our commitment to fulfilling our purpose as teachers.
Never underestimate the impact of a great teacher.
Teachers can learn so much from Trevor Noah’s words of wisdom. There are countless parallels between his discussions on identity, self-reflection, and purpose that can be compared to the field of education. Teachers play an essential role in America’s success as a nation. Teachers are undeniably the fertilizer students need to succeed inside and outside the classroom. We can only hope that the incoming administration will take lessons from the pandemic to heart and finally recognize that failing to fully support teachers could serve as another harsh reminder of how much America depends on, and needs to value, its educators.
Selah.