What is "clever" exactly?

It was parents' evening this week. I won't lie, I was dreading it. Tyran seems to spend his life in an alternate universe, doing as little possible in terms of what he "has" to do, and as much as possible pursuing his own interests. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that this is a bad thing necessarily, but since I'm not fortunate enough to be in the position I hoped as far as home educating the children is concerned, it makes life a little difficult for him. Because the harsh reality is that there are things he just has to do in school. But then, there are things I just have to do in life. Neither of us wants to be in this position, but here we are, along with millions of others. The issue is that it frustrates his teacher, who wants him to reach his full potential.

The thing is, for all his intelligence, which was explained to me in detail and came as something of a shock, he's the most vacant appearing child you could hope to meet. The boy spends his days seemingly in a complete dwaal from morning to night. He does as little as he can get away with on the things he just has to do, and spends his time absorbing astonishing amounts of information and detail on the things he would rather be learning about. Push him on the stuff he has to do and he can pull it all out of the bag with ease, but you need to know that he knows or, frankly, he appears to be more than a little dim.

Anyway, the point is that if he could spend all his time on self directed learning he'd probably appear far less vacant. And this quote, from Einstein, sums it up perfectly:
Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.