How it all got started with Neale Donald Walsch...

A Little HeartLight History

 The Initial Visionary

The word “HeartLight” was coined by Neale Donald Walsch in many of his best selling Conversations with God books. In his books, Neale questions the content of standard schooling throughout the world and poses to his readers the challenge of creating a different way of educating our young. He suggests building an out-of-the-box curriculum centered around awareness, honesty and responsibility, through classes and experiences that encourage learners and leaders to discover and create answers for themselves. 

The Vision and First Founding Teams

Neale and his non-profit foundation staff put their heads together and produced numerous brochures and beginning guides that included the concepts written in Neale’s books. Parents and educators flew from across the globe to Ashland, Oregon, Neale’s home base, to help with the new HeartLight concept, the materials and collaboration in the first two powerful HeartLight conferences, in the summers of 2000 and 2001. Hundreds of educators and parents gathered together to define a new way to “school.”  These founding groups quickly discovered that words such as “school” and “curriculum” did not accurately explain the full HeartLight concept. 

2000-2001 HeartLight Angels Arrive

Neale hired Linda Lee Ratto, Ed.M. to write a series of grants to jumpstart the HeartLight concept throughout 2000-2001.  And out of the first HeartLight Conference in August 2000, a team of four angels volunteered – yes without pay – to dedicate their time, talent and expertise to open the first HeartLight in Ashland.  Brian Davis of Toledo, Ohio and a seasoned public school principal was the first director. He co-teamed with three teachers who moved across the country to be HeartLight Lead-Learners: David Sherwin of South Carolina, Kelly Tisdel of Chicago and Tom Shelstad of Minnesota. On the second floor of the ReCreation Foundation building, close to a dozen children of all ages lived learning together.  However, without a written framework, guide and no capital, the team came together under HeartLight co-director Lisette Larkins and announced at the August 2001 HL conference that the first school was closing unless funding and deeper guidance became available. 

Conscious Competence teams with Creativity, Collaboration and Compassion!

As it happened, a world renown education reformist was driven by the HeartLight Vision written in Neale’s books, to also attend that second HL conference in August 2001.  Five time author Dr. William G. Spady, of Colorado and South Africa, stepped up to rally the HL conference attendees into an understanding of his core work "The Five C's" as it could be placed into the HeartLight learning vision. A new leadership team was born out of that conference. This group gathered in a HeartLight Leadership team workshop in Portland, Oregon in January 2002. Nineteen souls over three days created the first “HeartLight Inverted Pyramid” framework which was to eventually guide four teams into action by opening HeartLight Learning Communities (HLCs). Learning is deeply personal and difficult to place into words. Yet through heart-felt vision, hard work and numerous years of dedication, HeartLight Education’s paradigm-shifting learning system has developed into a framework dynamic in Purpose, Premises, Principles, Priorities, Practices, and Processes. 

Enthused by the newly evolved leadership team that was grounded-in decades of child-centered, person-honoring education, administration and out-of-the-box reformation experience, Neale gifted “HeartLight” – its name, vision and concepts – to the new HeartLight founding team. 

Based on Neale's core New Spirituality principles, HeartLight International was incorporated as a non-profit education leadership service organization in March of 2002. HeartLight’s co-founders were: Bill Spady, PhD, Linda Lee Ratto, Ed.M., James Colen, Shaktari Belew, Scott Kiere, Deborah Oliff, and Pam Spady with special service leadership by Ken Miller, MD. 

First “Domino” of the HL Non-Profit Organization

As reported by the first HeartLight teachers in Ashland, salaries and expertise were needed to open learning communities and sustain them. James Colen, a Harvard graduate and heart-centered philanthropist, pledged millions to see the HeartLight Vision in practice. A single man, he wanted to build HeartLight Learning Communities so his own children would one day attend an HLC. Linda co-created the HeartLight/CwG Model of learning with the HLE team from 2001-2006. She was HLE's first board secretary and school development director. She facilitated the opening of three HLE international non-profit umbrella organizations (USA, Australia and South Africa) and three learning communities; five obtained their own independent 501(C)(3) or charitable trust status.  Three schools were born in 2002.  Under HeartLight International and HeartLight Education’s (HLE) leadership, HeartLight South Africa (Port Elizabeth), HeartLight Toledo (Ohio, USA) and HeartLight Chicago (Illinois, USA) were opened and received their independent charitable status as non-profit learning environments in 2003. 

In response to Neale's pledge to open the School for the New Spirituality, in March 2006 the HLE board voted unanimously to gift back the HeartLight non-profit to Neale in order to empower the School of the New Spirituality into immediate existence. The HLE Model manual was compiled by Linda and is a grounded-in-CwG basis for the School of the New Spirituality's how-to steps. These will practically guide people in opening their own NS enrichment after school and after work programs. 

Another Phase

However, as you most probably are aware if you have read this far, traditional school systems throughout the world are not eager to make room for independent private schools. Yet we persist.  Parents, grandparents, teachers, and administrators in local, state, regional, and country systems see the overwhelming need for a different way of learning for children whose needs are not met in current programs. In the United States alone, some two million families home school their children. This is one way to create an individualized learning environment for our young. 

Another hard fact is that opening a full day school is not only costly and time-encompassing, but oftentimes regulations do not permit or may even stop private school creation in its tracks. Given the red tape labyrinth, numerous families who had been poised to give their children a chance for a different way of learning chose not to take the leap and register. This weary community environment, along with limits in self-sustained funding, caused the Toledo and Chicago programs to close.  

Now in 2007, HeartLight Port Elizabeth is still a learning community, though it encompasses all ages rather than their original teen focus in 2003-04.  The HeartLight South African Trust remains viable and numerous New Spirituality programs are underway in various parts of the world, though not exclusively under the HeartLight name or its non-profit corporation umbrella.  

New Spirituality Programs

March 2006

Late in 2005, Neale refocused on education for the next generations. In response to Neale's pledge to open the School for the New Spirituality, in March 2006 the HLE board voted unanimously to gift back the HeartLight non-profit to Neale in order to empower the School of the New Spirituality into immediate existence. HeartLight was renamed the School of the New Spirituality and became specifically focused on part-time enrichment programs honoring the spirit and heart+mind+body of each child.  The HLE Model manual was compiled by Linda and is a grounded-in-CwG basis for the School of the New Spirituality's "How-to steps."