Founding
The Founding of Heart To Hand School
Desert Sage Educational Initiative
In February 1999 a group of parents united to form a nonprofit organization called Desert Sage Educational Initiative (DSEI) for the purpose of bringing independent Waldorf schools to Nevada, beginning in the Reno metropolitan area. From the beginnings of a weekly study group and monthly board of trustees meeting, the efforts have grown from a small in-home preschool to a full kindergarten, accredited teacher education, parent education, and seasonal community festivals and celebrations.
Heart To Hand School
Heart To Hand School is the first and only Waldorf school in Nevada, but only the first of several schools envisioned by DSEI. Starting out in the home of our first teacher in 2000, Heart To Hand School moved to a small house in 2003, added a kindergarten in 2004, and then moved into its current, larger facility in 2005. Our community of dedicated parents and trustees are working together with the faculty to expand into a Waldorf grade school, as well as to extend Waldorf education into additional locations throughout the region.
The mission of Heart To Hand School is to create and maintain a simple and loving space where children can play and work and set their imaginations free. To this end, Rudolf Steiner’s ideal of “Receive the children in reverence, educate them with love, send them forth in freedom” is held closely in the hearts of teachers, staff, and parents as our mission.
Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking, and structures that shape and inform our lives.
~ Joseph Beuys
