In the pantheon of parental duties, shopping for school supplies stands alone. Certain kinds of crayons, certain brands, with certain numbers of crayons in the box). But there’s no point in arguing about school supplies. The back-to-school section looked like the rubble in an abandoned warehouse, with broken pencil toppers and half-opened packages of markers littering the shelves. These days, I buy my kids’ school supplies via a service that selects, packages and delivers all their supplies to the school.