Perennialists have the strong belief that education should focus on the ideas/principles that have lasted for centuries because (if they have lasted over time) these principles are as relevant and meaningful today as they were in the past. The main focus is to teach students ideas that are timeless and to seek everlasting truths, which are persistent. Perennialists suggest that students learn from reading and studying the works of history’s finest thinkers and writers. The curriculum of perennialism comes from the “Great Books,” which are a collection of literature viewed in the western culture “to be foundational, significant, and relevant, regardless of the time period.” The “Great Books” includes the work of Socrates, Homer, Plato, Aristotle, William Shakespeare, and Geoffrey Chaucer. Perennialism is similar to essentialism in that teachers are the ones who guide the educational process. A perennialism teacher has the task of aiding students in becoming cultural citizens and helping them understand the principles of human knowledge.