In 2004 the Australian Callers Federation petitioned Callerlab to update the “Lost Squares” procedure as we felt that no-one used it as written – we didn’t form lines “at the side of the square”. We simply formed any normal lines. Also we wanted clarification on what to do in Hoedowns AND singing calls. Callerlab took our suggestions on board and the procedure was updated in Jan 2005. Check their posting (Your extract above is out of date.)

http://www.callerlab.org/documents/pressreleases/PR_(05-01-17).pdf

Of course I can’t speak for every caller in every club but it is certainly part of our curriculum and I feel most callers have good intent of using it. Whether it’s used often enough to become a natural response by dancers is another question. That maybe why we still see people struggle to form lines on a breakdown. Heck – maybe we don’t break down enough .
We can all do well do revisit this at clubs periodically. And of course I’ll be watching to see what you do next time you break down .