ybrooklynteacher – I am an OT and my job sometimes includes teaching children on my caseload to tie their shoes. I must say you are correct, there are many older children who cannot tie their shoes. It is difficult for some children to do and we recommend velcro for those who have a lot of trouble. After size 3 or so it is difficult to find velcro so these kids are now stuck with laces whether they can do it or not. The elastic spiral laces are a good eitza, but not for older kids.
Having said that, I am certainly the venting type (not proud to say) but I feel sad that teachers would consider this something to vent about. I ran a pre-school for 4 years (60 kids) and tied many laces. If one of my teachers would have told me that tying shoes too often annoyed her or affected her feelings toward the child I probably wouldn’t have hired them back.