If you ask any Tuttle Middle School student what they learned Thursday, it might take them a minute to remember something from class.
The day was broken up at 10 a.m. as the entire student body gathered in the gymnasium for an assembly with special guest Luke Menard.
"We knew that we wanted to have him," Tuttle Assistant Principal Andrew Hartley said.
He credits choir director Connie Meek as being the person who set the entire event up. She also invited Luke to visit her afternoon choir classes at Crawfordsville High School.
Hartley said they learned last week that Luke would come to the school to address the student body. Approximately 580 students, along with the school's faculty began filling the gymnasium at 10 a.m., Hartley said.
After watching the video of Luke's American Idol experience, he fielded questions from a group of Tuttle students. Questioned varied from what was his favorite song that he sang on the show to which judge was his favorite and was Simon Cowell really as mean in person as he was on TV.
Eighth grade student Samuel Vaught said that Luke's making it onto the national scene breaks barriers for future entertainers to come out of Montgomery County.
"I think it is cool to see Crawfordsville's that talent can go outside the community to the national level," he said.
Seventh grade student Emily Guinter said that she has followed American Idol when Luke was on the show.
"I still do," she said. "It was neat to see him."
Guinter said that while seeing Luke TV is one thing, having him in the same room is even better.
"It is like we get to see TV in real life," she said.
Lyndsy Johnson, sixth grade student at Tuttle, said that while she watched Idol early on when Luke was on the show, recent weeks have not been as important to watch.
"I followed it as closely as possible when he was on the show," she said. "It hasn't been as high a priority as when Luke was on."
Eighth grader Marlee Sills said that while it was great to see Luke go out, it was also great to see him come back.
"A lot of the time, people go out there and they don't come back," she said. "If they do, they do not want to see children."
Luke said that while he was on national TV in front of countless viewers, it was harder standing in front of the students.
"On the show, it is more of looking at the camera than the people," he said. "There were more people here than are in the studio audience."
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