This Teacher Is Giving Away Free Sneakers to Motivate Students in School

A substitute teacher is rewarding hard working students with free brand-name sneakers.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

For students, being rewarded for good grades is always a positive motivator. Whether it's words of encouragement, a few bucks, or a night out to dinner, it's important to reinforce the results of hard work at an early age. But what if your grades could earn you a pair of Air Jordans? 

David Johnson Jr., a substitute teacher at a Louisiana high school, is shaking things up by encouraging his students to do better with the promise of free sneakers. After receiving a compliment from a hard-working student, Johnson decided she deserved a pair of her own: "She works real hard. She's an extremely smart, intelligent young lady and I thought she was extremely deserving of a pair of nice shoes."

So that's exactly what he did. Linking up with his fellow sneakerhead cousin, Johnson pooled their pairs together in an effort to not only reward students who were working hard, but to also look out for those students who may need the kicks more than he does. 

"We would find a kid who needed shoes, especially if they wore our size, and we'd give them a pair out of our closet that we hadn't worn. You could just tell they needed shoes. The ones they were wearing were old hand-me-downs or didn't fit right," recalled Johnson.

Now, they're buying up pairs and accepting donations locally to take the operation to new heights. The only stipulation Johnson has set is that the sneakers must be brand-name and something that he would be proud to wear himself.  Someone applaud this man. 

[via The Town Talk]