When I should be me

This has been a long time pet peeve of mine. Incorrect usage of "I" when it should be "ME."

For example, I remember having a conversation with the son of teachers when he discussed his parents were heading off on vacations and leaving money for their sons to cover small expenses:

"My parents are are leaving money for my brother and I," he said.

"ME," I stated

He giggled, then said, "Not for you, for my brother and I," he confirmed.

"No," I said, "In your sentence you should be saying that your parents are leaving money for your brother and ME."

"Why would they leave you anything?" he giggled.

"You said I," I replied.

"Right, for my brother and I," he said evenly.

"They brainwashed you in school, huh?" I said. "You're supposed to break up the subjects to figure out which is the proper pronoun to use. In this case, leave money for my brother, leave money for ME. You wouldn't say they were leaving money for I, now would you?"

"But that's the way they taught us in school from the beginning," he stated in a condescending way, "it's basic English."

"Yes, they do that when when little kids go around saying 'me and Jimmy are playing' and try to head off that bad usage. 'Jimmy and I' is the usual correction, and in that sentence correct. The main lesson is to reinforce that you should always put yourself in the conga line of people LAST," I tried to inform him. "If you break up that same sentence, 'Jimmy is paying,' 'I am playing,' 'Jimmy and I are playing,' is
correct."

"That's what I said, my brother and I" was his response.

"That's what you said, but it's grammatically wrong. You break up the sentence. Giving money to my brother and me is correct," I stated.

"I don't think so," was his clearly ignorant response.

"Look it up and get back to me," was my closing statement on the subject.

And that's the way it usually goes. This is a usage error ingrained into the minds youth of the land from the earliest days in school, and the correction isn't taught until high school. Some people are never able to fix that error, and embrace it as written in stone. It irks me like nails on a chalkboard when I hear it. It's pretty logical, why fight it?

Laurz seems to have the same thought as I do on the subject: HERE