There is a new blog in town that is thoughtful and wide-ranging, with elegant and direct writing. The blog tackles everything from the elections in Afghanistan to healthcare reform to the cult-like fandom for the new television show Glee.

The blog is not Patch, it's not The Local, nor is it the Maplewoodian (though we think Joe Strupp might be a closet "Glee" watcher). It is Academic Perspective, a blog by students "but not for students," according to its editor, CHS Junior Ben Drucker.

As Drucker wrote in his debut Academic Perpective's article: "Simply put, the topics of discussion in school newspapers are subjects no one outside of the school cares about. In most cases, few people within the school itself even find any of the newspaper’s content engaging and thus the school newspaper becomes an avenue for 'practice journalism.' Writing for a school newspaper can expose students to the journalistic process and improve their writing abilities, but rarely does it introduce them to topics of serious importance."

Academic Perspectives launched on October 18 and has produced 14 posts as of November 4. Drucker said that the site had had more than 1,600 visits total and almost 800 unique visits as of Monday, November 2.

The site is not school sanctioned. But Drucker hopes to enlist the help of teachers next year in recruiting more writers.

Academic Perspective has ten staff writers now, mostly Juniors and Seniors, with three freelance contributors. Drucker said he does not write for the award-winning Columbian newspaper, which he praised for its high quality. But, said Drucker, "We wanted to write about topics like culture and education, some of which is not appropriate for The Columbian."

Drucker said he's not trying to report on pure news, but rather, emulate broad discussions of political, cultural and social phenomenon that he has seen in such publications as The New York Times and The Economist.

Patch noticed a certain distance in some of the Academic Perspective articles. This is a nice break from a lot of the flame-throwing rhetoric one can find on blogs, social media and online chat rooms.

Still, we would urge Drucker to perhaps go a little deeper sometimes; for example, perhaps he could have probed the feelings of some of his fellow students for his piece on "Mind the Gap," the radio documentary about the achievement gap between black and white students at Columbia that recently aired on WYNC. How do Columbia students feel about being the subject of a documentary, especially one on such an sensitive and timely topic?

But that's a small quibble. And perhaps Drucker will cover that in a future column. Meanwhile, Drucker and his cohorts are on to something here.

Patch is just relieved that Drucker and his mates have decided to go more "global" than hyperlocal. Otherwise, we might be in trouble!