explain Intelligence

When is a person 'intelligent'?
Some would say, its academic - which is the general opinion.
Tell a parent "your child is intelligent" and 99% of the time, they will assume that we have used an academic yardstick to come to that conclusion.
That brings me to the next part - is it better to be intelligent academically, or just intelligent. Is there such a thing in the first place?
I think there is.
People who are intelligent academically, may not be intelligent practically. This simply means, in life, there are 2 schools : The academic school, and the school of hard knocks. There will be some who excel in both, but most times, it's one or the other.
The school of hard knocks is one institution where there are no books, just plain common sense and the drive to get ahead. It may be an easier route to graduate from, not requiring many hours of midnight oil burnings, but it's really not that easy, because the variables are many.
The academic school operates within a given, set syllabus - digest that and you are almost home free.
So, when a colleague asked me if I was ever an intelligent kid - I answered in the negative. I only managed Bs with an occasional A. Got very involved in inter-school activities, and basically, hardly spent much time digesting materials.
Whatever I learnt, it was from the school of hard knocks - mucked around, figured things out and just drove myself nuts trying to 'graduate'.
I think the most important thing is not whether we are academically intelligent but whether we are driven.
If we are driven, we can achieve.
And with that, we survive and do well.
That, is intelligence - the ability to adapt CORRECTLY to the situation.