Saturday was one of those perfect Indian summer days. The beach beckoned; the greenmarkets overflowed with pungent basil and ripe produce; tourists marched in droves over the Brooklyn Bridge to see the waterfalls. I pulled my reluctant 12-year-old out of bed and headed to the jam-packed citywide high school fair at Brooklyn Tech.

"But I don't want to go to Brooklyn Tech," he complained. The fair, I replied calmly, would be a chance to ask questions of hundreds of students, counselors, principals and others about their high schools all over the city.

The Department of Educationhas provided lots of opportunities to learn about the high school process, which is far more daunting, overwhelming and confusing than the one we just participated in to find a middle school. The fair was one of them, and I did learn a few things. I spoke to some energetic and devoted teachers at the up-and-coming Brooklyn Latin, and I came away totally impressed. I learned more about specialty high school exams and how to rank the schools. I discovered there are lots of new and innovative high schools worth checking out. I finally found out when some open house dates might be for schools on our (well, let's be frank) on my list.

"So what did you learn at the high school fair?" I asked my son as we huffed up and downstairs to find schools that interest him. It came as no surprise to find they were also the schools with the biggest crowds: for example, Bard, Beacon, Millennium, Stuyvesant and his current obsession, LaGuardia. "I learned a lot of people want to go to LaGuardia," he said.

When we got home, he spent two hours practicing for his audition in November. Our next step will be to visit some open houses and to have another one of those "you can't put all your eggs in basket," talks. It's great to know what you want – even if you have yet to see it or experience it -- but it's also important to get a good sense of different high schools and what they offer.