I or me?

 My blood pressure is still high because of something I read this morning. Was it some gloomy story in the newspaper, or some tragedy I read about on the Internet? No. It was something quite simple and seemingly innocent. While administering the Iowa Standardized test to my 6 year old, my eyes wandered to the next section while waiting for my child to finish. And here is what I read (slightly changed to protect the guilty): "He eats faster than me."  It was a section testing on capitalization, not grammar usage. Anyone who knows me well enough can imagine my reaction. Nothing gets me riled up more than improper pronoun usage, except the misuse of 'lie' and 'lay.' Yes, there was  a lot of yelling and gesticulating on my part. My husband surmised that the test makers were probably using the vernacular because most children would have found the correct usage confusing.  I countered with the fact that spoken or written, it was still incorrect. Just because most people speak this way, it is not correct or acceptable. There are rules and we must follow them. Just ask my children and they will tell you that I have insisted on proper grammar since they were able to talk. My older children, from the 6 year old on up, all knew what was wrong with the offending sentence.  So, it has come to this. Tests are dumbed down for children who cannot speak properly. Or, worse, the test makers themselves do not know proper grammar usage. How sad. Breathe deeply, Katie.