This study aims to examine the role of essentialist interpretations in education. A group of university students (N = 196) were asked to rank themselves on a social ladder and respond to a set of statements on essentialist beliefs about social class and differential notions of intelligence. Results showed that it is possible to construct a reliable scale measuring essentialist beliefs, comprising views of social class as a discrete and stable social category. The differential notions of intelligence, or the social representation of natural giftedness, seem to be connected to two frames pertaining to the definition of social position: the essentialist beliefs about social class and the subjective perception of one's own social rank. Accordingly, the representation of natural giftedness is part of the social-positional perspective of education.