"Giving views such a high priority is just wrong." No, it's not! If I'm trynig to teach someone with wery little programming experience, he'll want to see results. Starting out with something he'll see is what helps to keep him engaged.
There is a reason most tutorials start with: this is how you show something, and if you want to sawe data here's how to make ane use a database. Sure doing it the other way around seems natural to you and other web developers, but it's a bad way to introduce a framework to a complete newbie.
The problem I see with your approach is that you have a rather narrow definition of "seeing results". If you want them to see something in the browser immediately, start by teaching basic HTML. You don't need Django for that. QuerySets that are easy to generate are a great result for somebody who has HTML experience and wants to build a data driven website.
Making the first step simple will just make it even more frustrating later when they don't understand concepts like objects, modules, packages, inheritance, DRY, separation of concerns, best practices, yadda.
There is a reason most tutorials start with: this is how you show something, and if you want to sawe data here's how to make ane use a database. Sure doing it the other way around seems natural to you and other web developers, but it's a bad way to introduce a framework to a complete newbie.