(Latin for “Plan of Studies”) – A document the definitive form of which was published in 1599 after several earlier drafts and extensive consultation among Jesuits working in schools. It was a handbook of practical directives for teachers and administrators, a collection of themost effective educational methods of the time, tested and adapted to fit the Jesuit mission of education. Since it was addressed to Jesuits, the principles behind its directives could be assumed.They came, of course, from the vision and spirit of Ignatius.* The process that led to the Ratio and continued after its publication gave birth to the first real system of schools the world had ever known.Much of what the 1599 Ratio contained would not be relevant to Jesuit schools today. Still, the process out of which it grew and thrived suggests that we have only just begun to tap the possibilities within the international Jesuit network for collaboration and interchange. [See also “Education, Jesuit” and “Pedagogy, Ignatian/Jesuit.”]