There can be few better schools in the politics of education than the NUT executive for this is the only body, other than parliament and the DES, that concerns itself actively with every aspect of education in England and Wales. Every other teachers' association limits itself to part of the system or to one ideology, sex, or creed but the NUT seeks to represent all teachers and it does indeed have active members in every sector and every type of institution. A consequence of this is that executive members have a wide range of experience but the price they pay for this is that they are inundated with paper and subjected to a disturbing variety of pressures.