Practice Makes Perfect

I thought that Anna brought up a really good point in one of her questions posts. Are people born good at something or is it practice that makes them good at it?
I think that practice really does make perfect. Have you ever noticed that people are really good at things they like? Well, if you like doing something you are going to practice it more and get better at it, right? So that would indicate to me that practice is really the thing that makes talent. Obviously, there are some instances where talent is obvious from a young age. And some people are born tone-deaf or have no rhythm. BUT then that makes me think that maybe those people who are tone-deaf were told that they were tone-deaf from a young age, and therefore decided not to practice very much. Maybe if they were born tone-deaf but had encouragement and the right voice instructors, they would be able to develop into a great singers. But we will never know, will we?

My relevant story involves my turbulent relationship with math. When I was in 2nd and 3rd grade, time tests were a really big deal in math class. And I sucked at time tests. (If you don't know what a time test is, its a whole bunch of math problems on a sheet of paper, and you have like 60 seconds to finish as many as you can.) I could figure out the answers if I had time to do so, but for some reason my brain just couldn't work quickly enough to please my teachers. So I was put in 'special' math classes, where they would specifically work with me on my quick math skills. Even that didn't help, though. It just didn't fit the way I learned. I was basically told I was bad at math from a young age. But I wasn't, and I'm still not bad at Math. I just learned differently, and according to elementary school Math teachers, that was wrong.
Now, let's talk about English. From the 1st grade, I have been in enriched/advanced/gifted&talented English classes. I have always been a great reader, and I started at a young age. I've been told many times that I am a great writer, and I have never really had trouble with English classes.

Consider this: I fulfilled the minimum math requirements in High School and immediately quit math. But I took 5 English classes my senior year of High School, way more than were required. In fact, over the course of my 4 years of High School, I took every English class my school had to offer except two. I am in College now, and I am going to be an English Major.
Do you think if I had been told I was really great at Math my life would be completely different? I don't know.

What do you think? Is talent something you're born with, or is it encouragement and practice that causes you to excel at things?

Darcy