School survey shocks parent-religious profiling

[L.Wood]

FLIPPIN — Lisa Lee of Bull Shoals was shocked Thursday evening when she saw a survey containing religious questions her son was asked to complete during his career-orientation class at Flippin Middle School.
Lee, who has a meeting set Monday with school officials to discuss the issue, says she will ask them to shred the completed surveys that were taken this week by eighth-graders in career orientation class.

"No one needs to see this information," Lee said. "It's religious profiling."

After being informed about the survey Friday, a professor who teaches career orientation at Arkansas State University says the survey has "credibility issues" and he will recommend the survey be taken down from a Web site.

The survey, titled "Attitude Inventory," asks students to rate themselves on questions such as "I daydream about making a lot of money" and "I have a regular dental checkup once a year." Also included are questions about whether the student prays to God about his or her problems, or whether the student believes that tithing 1/10 of earnings is one's duty to God.

The survey asks students to rate themselves from 1 to 5 on the questions, with 5 meaning "positively yes." Once the 100-question survey is complete, the student adds up the scores, with 500 being a perfect score.

The survey tells students that scores greater than 400 mean students have a very positive outlook and could be very successful with everything they do. The survey states scores below 200 mean students don't have a good perspective of the world around them and need attitude adjustments. ......

Flippin Superintendent Dale Query told The Bulletin on Friday he plans to talk to Lee on Monday and still is gathering information about the survey.

Query said the survey was taken from the Arkansas Career Orientation Teachers Association (ACOTA) Web site, which is affiliated with the Arkansas Department of Workforce Education.

The Web site makes available material created by teachers to be used by other teachers at their discretion, said Sharla Hartzell, president-elect for the Arkansas Career Guidance Association, a professional organization for teachers and counselors.
Baxter Bulletin August 23, 2008

The survey is linked here.
I don't expect it to be up much longer. Reveals too much left over Huckabee.

(Having helped raise a teen just two years ago I can say that had they waited two years, until the kids were in the tenth grade, the students would play the survey)

[Dardedar]

...or whether the student believes that tithing 1/10 of earnings is one's duty to God.

DAR
Amazing.

[RobertMadewell]

Here's one of the questions.

72. I read the Bible or other religious writings regularly. 5 4 3 2 1

It's funny that with the exception of that question, I'd answer all of the religious statements with a 1.
On #72, I'd circle the 5. Of course, not because of the reasons the author of this survey intended.

Just shows how the non-religious are stereotyped as being uninformed, ignorant of religious ideology and unread in the holy literature. I am as atheistic as you can get and I read the bible all the time and I write short essays on what I've read. I've also read some of the koran, urantia book, vedas and the book of mormon.

Edit:
I also realized that this question could be interpreted in the past tense. Like this.

72. I (have) read the Bible or other religious writings regularly. 5 4 3 2 1

"read" being pronouce "red" instead of "reed".

So technically any ex-theist who used to read the bible (or other) regularly can answer with a higher number than 1.
Not only does this survey assume that you have to be religious to have a positive attitude, its questions can be misinterpreted thereby corrupting any useful data you might get from it.

I think I may actually print this out and see what kind of score I get.

Edit:
The original post expressed some concern that the document might be taken down, so I have saved a copy of it. I won't post it online, but I do have a copy just in case someone might want one.

[Betsy]

I'm sure you'll end up with a score that says you've got a very negative outlook on life, all because you don't believe you should tithe 10% and you don't pray, etc.

BTW, I don't even understand why evangelicals believe they have to tithe 10% (except that they're apparently complete sheep who believe anything). That's OLD TESTAMENT. Right there along with all the OLD TESTAMENT laws and rules of which they do NOT think they have to abide. So why do they have to abide by the tithe rule? Stupid.

[Dardedar]

So why do they have to abide by the tithe rule? Stupid.

DAR
Xtians pick and choose what they like from the Hebrew scriptures, based upon religious and political convenience, and they discard the rest. Always have. In fact it's what their religion is founded upon. Give a certain steady amount to the church? Ooooh, that one's a keeper.

And look at all the noise they make about the Ten Commandments, when it's convenient. But very few of them know what they are, and on the occasion they think they do, they are invariably looking at the wrong ones. It really rather pitiful.

D.