Summer "Reading" List

To get students to read, summer lists mix classic with contemporary favorites Schools Star-Telegram.com

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This feature article was in my newspaper this morning. These are the motes of wisdom which jumped out at me:
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"...students often find those must-read classics stodgy and hard to understand.... modern girls can't relate to such traditional women's roles.... The answer, educators say, is to prepare students in advance for the eccentricities of the older works.... 'The older classics are there mostly because they will be referred to in newer works, even in movies.... We always encourage them to have the actual book in front of them if they're listening on tape.'"

Now, they're very careful never to specify which classic books exactly they're referring to as "stodgy" or full of harmful "traditional women's roles" (fear of hate mail from benighted readers who might value those classics, no doubt), but considering that "educators" are only including classics so students can understand references in movies and "encourage" students to have an actual printed book on what is referred to as a summer reading list, I pose this question: Is the problem with the classic books or with the modern student who is so self-referential that he cannot be expected to understand a lifestyle and/or time period different than his own?