Participatory activities: prefects, junior leaders, teachers, principles, schoolmates, other students An analysis of the range of people with whom children and young people come into contact with show that those who most often fail to listen to them are professionals most expected to know children’s right to participation and would, therefore, be most expected to respect and facilitate this right. Several children, for instance, listed various teachers, sports coaches and doctors as failing to listen to them. Strikingly, the application of the kaleidoscope in Finland, where children’s right to participation is more widely known and respected than it is in the nascent Maldivian democracy, yielded the same pattern36: that is, professionals listen to children less than those with whom children have personal contacts. None of the children listed youth workers or local governance figures in the various areas of Male’ as coming into contact with them, let alone listening to them. The absence of such figures from children’s lives reveals a wide gap in opportunities for children to participate in decisions that affect their lives out of school and within the larger community. With regard to persons involved in children’s lives within the areas of sports, leisure activities and interests, children did say some of them do listen while others were emphatic that such figures do not listen to them at all. Among those who do listen to children and take their views seriously were those with whom the children had personal relationships such as parents, family, friends and neighbours. Several children also listed healthcare professionals in schools as being among adults who listen to them and take their views seriously. These findings match the results generated from the use of the Kaleidoscope in the Council of Europe study – that there is a direct link between participation and proximity, especially in activities carried out within informal structures. A valid conclusion can thus be drawn: people who are professionally expected to listen to children do so less than people with whom the children have personal relationships. Values Reasons why children think adults do not listen to them The third task set by the Kaleidoscope was for the children to list, on a blue sheet of paper, the reasons why they think adults do not listen to their views. They provided a wide range of reasons from ‘they think I am too young to understand’, to ‘not believing in us’, ‘them feeling they are the boss’ and ‘because they don’t care about us’. Several children also pointed out that adults find their opinions silly or too disorganised to be taken into account. 36 Ibid., 33-34 29