“Come on!” the man yells through the megaphone. “Your children need to see you taking part. They need to see you running”.

That dreaded time has come. The School Sports Day season is upon us —  and with it comes the mother of all challanges — the Mums’ Race.

When I say challenge, it’s not so much the distance, or speed, but the ludicrous array of dilemmas it throws up.

Should you do it at all? Are you setting a bad example by racing against others, or does the lesson of taking part override any question about the morality of trying to beat fellow human beings to the finish line?

Or should you politely ignore Megaphone Man’s  invitation, despite having enjoyed watching your own and other people’s children gamefully and un-selfconsciously crawling through tunnels, racing around cones and leaping over obstacles for the past two hours.

Should you win, and embarrass yourself and your child? Or should you lose, and embarrass yourself and your child? 

Should you run in sandals, a strappy top and a floaty skirt, and risk what Janet Jackson once described as a “wardrobe malfunction”, or slip on the running spikes and lycra and shrug off the sneers of those less well-prepared?

Well, it’s summer, and the children are only young. So the best strategy is probably to go barefoot, in the middle of the pack, balancing a bean bag on your head and laughing all the way.

A motion at the National Union of Teachers annual conference wants a campaign to stop all military “recruitment” in schools. It says the Ministry of Defence is luring youngsters, often from deprived areas, into the armed forces.

Last year, Scotland’s biggest teaching union, the EIS, also voted to call for such a ban, claiming the military was trying to boost its falling numbers — caused by the unpopularity of the Iraq and Afghan campaigns — by targeting impressionable teenagers

The ministry says it is invited into about 1,000 schools a year and that it goes to inform rather than recruit.

The Conservatives call the NUT campaign “a kick in the teeth for our boys in the front line” and say the teachers should be concentrating on education.

Do you think the MoD should be going into schools? Would you be happy if your child attended a talk outlining the advantages of a military career?

Once, kids had to work hard to become famous.

Whatever their chosen route, it would usually involve endless hours of practice — be it in the gym, on the pitch, at the keyboard or on the stage.

Now, with the advent of the reality TV star and the explosion of shows like the X Factor, America’s Next Top Model, Laguna Beach and the like, it seems anyone can do it and earn themselves millions in the process.

In the meantime, the media obsession with celebrities like David Beckham and Paris Hilton reinforces the yearning for stardom.

No wonder then, perhaps, that many children think it’s hardly worth bothering with their studies any more, as a survey of teachers by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found.

“Celebrity culture can perpetuate the notion that celebrity status is the greatest achievement and reinforces the belief that other career options are not valuable,” the Association said.

Are kids becoming dangerously celebrity-obsessed these days or do they still have their heads screwed on? And if it really is a problem, should schools be trying to counter the trend more actively?